115th Year of IWD

Yesterday, March 8, was International Women’s Day! It’s a day when people all over the world recognize the “social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women,” and promote gender quality. In fact, this is the 115th year of International Women’s Day. While it was first celebrated in 1911, it was centuries in the making.

IWD History

According to the International Women’s Day website, one of the earliest documented efforts was, in 1776 when the United States was establishing its independence and John Adams was President, his wife Abigail Smith Adams, the First Lady, wrote a letter to the men in Continental Congress urging them to consider women’s rights and protections as they wrote the new laws for their new country.

Over the next 135 years, women worldwide continued to speak up about their rights, fair wages, working conditions, and in 1911 the first International Women’s Day rallies were held in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. More than one million people attended events, and considering that was long before news could spread over social media, email, text or even TV, one million people getting involved is a pretty impressive number.

The next several decades saw more and more countries officially recognize International Women’s Day, and in the late 1970s through 80s, the United States established Women’s History Week and then Women’s History Month. As the years went on, support for International Women’s Day grew worldwide, as did people’s support for women’s rights.

Women’s Impact

Recently in multiple countries, women organized events where, on a certain day, they stayed home from work and school, didn’t spend money or go shopping; it was a day without women’s contributions. Women participated in these events to show their communities and countries how much economies and societies depend on women, and women also wanted to protest problems in their country, like unequal pay, women’s rights being restricted, and rising violence against women. Those days without women shut down schools, impacted workplaces, shops and stores, and public transportation. Pretty wild that it took women staying home for people to start to notice the significant difference women make.

Because they do–women have a remarkable impact locally and globally, and that’s WITH the challenges they still face today. I believe if women had the equality, rights, and support they deserve, the world would absolutely flourish. Since change takes time, here are a few things I hope to see by the time you gals are my age.

Value for Women In Science

I hope to see women researchers receive an equal amount of grant funding as men researchers receive. A meta-analysis published in 2023 in the scientific journal Research Integrity and Peer Review showed that women researchers were given way less grant money than men researchers. And that’s not because there aren’t as many women in STEM as there were men, there were actually a similar amount of women and men grant applicants, but more grant money was awarded to men. Women scientists should not be valued differently than men; women should receive equal funding. 

I also hope to see an equal amount of research on women’s issues specifically. According to a report by the McKinsey Health Institute, a small fraction of all healthcare research is for women’s health issues, and a sliver of that is for conditions other than cancer. The report also said in 2015 there were five times more scientific studies on a certain men’s health issue than studies on premenstrual syndrome (PMS), which affects girls and women. Five times more studies. And between 2019-2023, 11 new companies received $1.24 billion dollars to study men’s health concerns, while 8 new companies only received $44 million dollars to study endometriosis, a condition that affects girls and women. Women’s health issues are severely understudied, underfunded, and undervalued–and that needs to stop. 

One more on science–I hope to see women considered in scientific studies. An article by the Association of American Medical Colleges shared that women have historically been underrepresented or not represented at all in clinical research. Which means researchers don’t know much or don’t know at all how certain medicines and treatments affect women because most of the past studies disproportionally tested on male participants.

Also, American car manufacturers still aren’t conducting vehicle safety tests with a female crash test dummy. Per NPR, for years companies used a dummy modeled after an average-sized man, and then in the early 2000s they made a smaller version of the male dummy to represent women. But females are not just a smaller version of males, and how we sit and fit inside a car is different. Just this past November the US government approved a design for a female crash test dummy, but it’ll still take a few years until it is used in crash tests by car manufacturers. So given all that, by the time you girls are my age, I hope to see women researchers receive an equal amount of grant funding as men researchers receive, I hope to see an equal amount of research on women’s issues specifically, and I hope to see women considered in scientific studies.

Support for and Investment in Women

By the time you gals are my age, I hope to see every country in the world requiring at least 12 weeks of paid maternity work leave for women after having or adopting a baby. Many countries already offer far better than that; the United States however does not require businesses to provide their employees paid maternity leave, they only get 12 weeks of unpaid leave, though some states have their own paid leave programs. I also hope to see early child care support in every country, and a substantial increase in the amount the US contributes to cover childcare costs. Women need and deserve this support.

Lastly, I hope to see the gender pay gap closed. Completely. Which is a very high hope. In January the National Women’s Law Center reported US women are currently paid 81 cents for every dollar a man makes, and the amount is even less for women of color. That report also shared that 19 cent difference adds up to “$13,570 less per year in median earnings.” That’s a lot of money. And it’s not right that women earn less for doing the same job, the same work, the same hours. Women should be paid equally. Period.

While we still have plenty of work to do for women’s rights and equality, we’ve come a long way since the first International Women’s Day in 1911. And I’m optimistic that more progress is coming soon, thanks to the many women (and men) worldwide who continue to advocate for us. If you’d like to learn more about Women’s History, in episode 124 I highlighted some Women’s Rights events, and in episode 125 I shared some inventions created by women. Also in episode 077 I shared all about the International Day of the Girl, which is celebrated in October.

Resources

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