Attention: non-community-specific content. You’ll live. You may even thank me.

Today is International Women’s Day, growing from the Socialist Party of America’s Women’s Day (February 28, 1908) to the UN’s invitation of observance in 1975. And not unlike great American talent Morgan Freeman’s observation regarding Black History Month, I too wonder why recognition of roughly half the planet’s population is relegated to one month a year.

This year’s United Nations theme for March 8, 2024 is Invest in women: Accelerate progress.

According to the UN Women Headquarters website…

• The gender pay gap stands at 20 per cent, meaning women workers earn 80 per cent of what men do. For women of colour, migrant women, those with disabilities, and women with children, the gap is even greater.
• Women also do three more hours of daily care work than men, globally.
• The motherhood penalty exacerbates pay inequity, with working mothers facing lower wages, a disparity that jumps as the number of children a woman has increases.
• Despite significant progress in women’s education and labour market participation, progress in closing the gender pay gap has been too slow. At this pace, it will take almost 300 years to achieve economic gender parity.

Over at the BBC, Why do campaigners argue that International Women’s Day is needed?

• UN experts say they have received credible allegations of human rights violations against women and girls in Gaza, including cases of rape by Israeli forces.

• The BBC has also seen evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of Israeli women during the 7 October Hamas attacks.

• In Afghanistan, girls above primary-school age remain banned from classrooms by the Taliban, hindering women’s access to equal education.

• In Iran, many continue to defy the rules requiring women to cover their hair, while activists like the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi are facing lengthy jail terms.

• The UN says women and girls in Sudan are being abducted and raped in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), where they are forced to marry and are held for ransom.

• According to the 2023 Global Gender Gap Index, published every year by the World Economic Forum, no country has yet achieved full gender equality or parity.

The question bears repeating…

Where would you be today without a woman?

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I leave you all today with a March 8^th-inspired playlist by Detroit-based baritone saxophonist, Kresge artist fellow and host of WDET’s Visions, Kaleigh Wilder.

⏯ Visions: Celebrate Women’s History Month with music from Sarah Vaughan, Mary Lou Williams, jaimie branch, more

Oh, and Happy March 8^th, Ms Green.