International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 every year and it focuses on various celebrations from respect, appreciation, and love towards women to celebrating women's economic, political, and social achievements.
While there have been advances in conditions for women in the United States, there still are many challenges ahead to ensure gender equality.
The theme for the Women of Steel conference is “Stepping Up,” which falls in line with the theme for the International Woman’s Day which is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality"
According to a USA today article, 165 or 84 % of respected constitutions explicitly guarantee gender equality. Only 32 constitutions do not and the U.S. Constitution is one of them.
It goes on to say, the United States has fallen to 28th place on a yearly list of the world's most and least equal countries for men and women. America fell out of the top 20 on this year's World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap report, eight places down from last year.
A report by the Pew Research Center places the U.S. in 74th out of 145 countries in terms of equal pay for equal work. Average women's pay remains only 77 cents for every dollar the average man's dollar makes.
Gender inequality in the workplace is probably most apparent in how under-represented women are in leadership positions. According to the Center for American Progress, women “are only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.”
Another area where the U.S. lags behind other industrialized nations is in functional child care. Insurmountable child care costs force women to either drop out of the workforce or discontinue a promising career.
Many nations, such as the Nordic countries, offer government-supported child care and generous time off to care for family.
While we celebrate the past progress of economic, political, and social achievements for women, we must not give up on “Stepping Up” for true gender equality.