Reflections of International Women's Day

Stories related to women and girls globally generally tend to get so little mainstream coverage in the media that it's too easy to remain blissfully unaware of their status. March 8, International Women's Day, lets the world stop and consider women's condition past and present -- both to celebrate the economic, political and social strides women have certainly made globally, but also to remind us of the enormous inequities that remain to be addressed. Around the world, girls and women continue to lack economic opportunity and adequate health care and education. They are pushed into early marriage and suffer sexual violence and many forms of oppression and discrimination.

The global community is increasingly aware that educating girls and women helps the whole of humanity, with women's empowerment linked to the alleviation of a host of serious problems facing the world such as poverty, war and the environment. As Hillary Clinton said at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, "human rights are women's rights ... and women's rights are human rights."

Women -- and men -- must come together and take a strong stand for our own rights and those of our global sisters. (To get informed and involved, you can visit this list where we feature some of the amazing organizations working on behalf of women's global causes.) 

As a freelance journalist I have had the honor of interviewing some of the world's most renowned and influential women. To help celebrate International Women's Day, I went through my interviews and compiled a selection of quotes to remind us of our interdependence and why we all benefit when we stand up to empower women and girls.

Generally, I suppose if you just added up the number of abused women, it would probably far outweigh the privileged women. I hate to say that, but certainly across the developing world, many countries and many parts of many countries have not come very far in treating women with dignity. In a large part of the world, women are second-class citizens. And then in our own so-called "civilized" countries, the amount of domestic violence that is uncovered all the time is shocking. So I think women are still getting a hard time, I'm afraid.

--Jane Goodall, primatologist and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots & Shoots, a global nonprofit that empowers youths to make a positive difference for all living things

My vision of a world is one that is built on sustainable values and practices, because there won't be a world if we don't figure that one out. And there are no better people than women to save the planet, because we understand the cycles of life. So if cycles of life were applied to all our environmental and natural resource degradation, we would change where we're going. A world where girls are valued, because they must be -- they have so much to contribute -- and that's the economic opportunity that the world is missing. And then a world where a woman's voice really makes a difference. Because we have a different set of values, and if we speak them and live them, then the world will reflect that. That's bound to be a more equitable and just place.

--Pat Mitchell, first woman president and CEO of PBS, former president and CEO of The Paley Center for Media and organizer of TEDWomen

I think I have a profound desire to really see if it's possible for us to evolve out of a violent paradigm, out of a violent mentality, and to actually know what the world would be like if we weren't living in that. I'm very curious about it. So I think the idea that we are murdering and dropping bombs on people ... the idea that there are women across this planet who have no rights and cannot live their lives even a quarter of the way they should be living, the idea that there are people starving and living in dust, the idea that people have no voice and no life -- and that this is the only life we get -- gets me up and gets me going every day.

--Eve Ensler, author and playwright and the founder and artistic director of V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls

We're a global society; we're a global community. Everyplace I go, everyone's the same. I go to Africa, and I just got back from Peru ... and no matter what the culture is, everybody's doing the same thing. Everybody's surviving off the planet, surviving off the land somehow. That's the only way to do it. And they all want the same thing -- they all have families, they all have homes, they all just want to make a living, they all want to be happy, they want to be loved. I see it everywhere I go. There's no exception. And that's really powerful. It's really powerful to see that we really are all the same. We all need the same things, and we all get it from the same place. So in that alone, we have become a global society, and what we do has an impact. What I see is all of it coming together. ... It's kind of exciting to see how we all are connected now, completely connected.

--Cameron Diaz, actress and longtime environmental activist

Some of us may have a powerful voice in Western countries, but women globally often have very little voice in comparison with men. However, saying that, at the same time, when women get together as a group, it's immensely powerful. And I get very frustrated when I hear women saying, "Oh, feminism is passé." Because I think feminism means empowerment. Men can be feminists, too! Many men are feminists. We need feminism. It's not against men. It's about the empowerment of women. It's the respect of women. Giving women equal rights, the same opportunities. Women are the mothers. We have to value and respect mothers.

--Annie Lennox, recording artist and founder of SING, a humanitarian organization that raises awareness for the AIDS/HIV pandemic in Africa

Read the full article by by Marianne Schnall at www.feminist.com