Senate Supports International Women’s Day - Women's Congressional Policy Institute

On March 8, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, a resolution (S. Res. 74) designating March 8, 2005, as “International Women’s Day.” Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) sponsored the resolution.

The resolution contains a number of findings on the status of women in the United States and abroad, including:

Discrimination continues to deny women full political and economic equality and is often the basis for violations of women’s basic human rights;
The lives of women and girls continue to be endangered by violence that is directed at them simply because they are female;
The World Health Organization asserts that domestic violence causes more deaths and disability among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war;
Women account for half of all cases of HIV/AIDS, and in Africa, young women are three times more likely to contract the virus than men;
Illegal trafficking worldwide for forced labor, domestic servitude, or sexual exploitation involves approximately two million women and children each year, of whom 50,000 are transported to the United States;
Two-thirds of the world’s nearly 1 billion illiterate individuals are women, and two-thirds of the children denied primary education are girls;
Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, and produce half of the world’s food supply, yet earn only 10 percent of the world’s income, and own less than one percent of the world’s property; and
Despite extraordinary advances, women still comprise the majority of the world’s poor, illiterate, and uneducated; remain under-compensated for the work they do; still do not have adequate access to medical care in many countries; are under-represented in leadership positions in government and business; and continue to be targeted for unspeakable atrocities in war and conflict.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) explained that at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, she and other women leaders urged world governments “to act on the ideal that ‘women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights.’” She urged the United States to reaffirm the goals laid out in Beijing, which include: 1) Improving access to quality health care, including reproductive and sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment; 2) Preventing violence against women, which includes the trafficking of women and girls worldwide, and ensuring that the criminals engaging in these activities are brought to justice; 3) Increasing the participating of women in decision-making positions in government and the private sector; 4) Extending full economic opportunities to women, including access to microfinance and microenterprise; 5) Ensuring that primary education is available to girls in every country of the world; 6) Strengthening the role of women as agents of peace to ease religious, racial, and ethnic tensions, cross cultural divides, and reduce violence in areas of conflict and war; and 7) Ensuring that women have equal opportunity for meaningful representation in all areas of decision-making.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) agreed, stating, “If the United States aims to be a great champion of the rights of women and girls for the rest of the world, we must do more to promote respect for women as well as increase participation in every aspect of a country’s civil, political, and economic life.” She added that women “are the backbone of our global society. They are our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, and our grandparents. They nurture us and teach us the lessons of life and how to be a better person. As such, I am proud to commemorate March 8, 2005, as International Women’s Day.”