International Women’s Day is Friday, March 8, 2013. Here at Emory, this entire week is dedicated to celebrating this important event. We spoke to Jacquie Cutts, the coordinator of the whole week, to learn what International Women Week is, and why and how to get involved. After learning about all of the great events that will be taking place on campus and the impact and goals of International Women’s Week we’re extremely excited about the event and hope to see lots of Her Campus readers there. Read our interview with Jacquie to learn more:
1. What is International Women’s Week? International Women’s Week is a week-long celebration at Emory recognizing the struggles, efforts, and triumphs of and for women involving all people at Emory. Organizations from three schools are currently involved–the law school, public health school, and undergraduate campus. It is preceding International Women’s DAY, which is an international, annual event that has been celebrating issues related to women since the early 1900s. It is now global–people in many, many countries celebrate it, and there are many different themes every year.
There are several events taking place: (1) A panel discussion at the law school called Violence Against Women on the International Stage on Wednesday, March 6th at 12:15 in Room 1B (cosponsored by International Law Society, LAWS, SALSA, and LSRJ, which are all law school groups); (2) A bake sale to raise money for a woman’s school in Rwanda (a place where gender inequity in education is a big deal) at the public health school, sponsored by the Emory Global Health Organization; (3) An event called “Survivors and More” on Wednesday about living with sexual assault providers, and other subjects, sponsored by Sexual Assault Peer Advocates at the undergrad campus; (4) FACTS–There will be facts on cards, flyers, and coffee cups spread out all over these three schools that focus on education people, and sparking discussion, related to the status of women worldwide.
2. Why is it an important event for Emory students to go to? Whether or not you happen to identify as female, we all have women in our lives who we care about deeply–mothers, sisters, girlfriends, wives, daughters, friends, grandmothers, granddaughters, etc–and there are many struggles that women face simply as a function of being women. Some quick stand out stats:
- Women account for 55% of college students in the U.S., yet they only make $0.77 for every $1 that men make in the same positions with the same qualifications.
- 1 in 4 U.S. women will be raped (or experience an attempted rape) by the time they graduate college; at Emory, this equates to roughly 1,000 of our undergrads.
- Roughly 17,000,000 U.S. women are living in poverty, which is 5,000,000 more women than men.
- Women hold only 18% of the seats in the U.S. Congress.
- In the United States, between 1.2 and 1.7 million women will experience preventable injury during childbirth this year.
- Worldwide, women perform 66% of the work but earn only 11% of the income.
- 14 million adolescent females around the world will become pregnant this year.
- Between 270,000 and 300,000 women will die this year during pregnancy and childbirth; MILLIONS more will suffer grave and debilitating injuries.
- 1 in 3 women around the world will be beaten, abused, or coerced into sex during her lifetime.
There are many, many more facts about women that represent the nature of what it means to be a woman on our campus, in our nation, and around the world; and they matter because we are women, or because we care about women.
3. How can people get involved? ATTEND EVENTS!! Especially go to events that aren’t at your school. Read the facts around campus, and spark conversation with other people (both on and off campus) about the status of women. Share your personal experiences with these issues, or share facts about women and how you plan to get involved… AND–get involved! There are many organizations that work to better the lives of women domestically and globally.
Check out International Women’s Day’s website for more information about the global event: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/