Sydney Newton
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International Women’s Day is a global day that celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. This day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Since this day became recognized in the early 1900s, there has been countless monumental movements that have helped us get to the point where we are today.

However, there is still progress to be made. This past year, the World Economic Forum estimated (based on current patterns) that the gender gap will not close entirely until 2133.

The index compiles data about equality for women from all over the world. The four categories that the index includes are economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival. It might come as a surprise (or not) that the United States is No. 28 on the index.

There are some people who have the tendency to believe that because there is a female presidential candidate and women seem to have all the equal rights as men, that there isn’t that strong of a need for International Women’s Day anymore, but sadly, they are mistaken.

An article posted on Amnesty.org gave six reasons there is still a need for International Women’s Day. These are things that are happening in our world today.

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Approximately 39 percent of the world’s population live in countries in which abortion is either banned or allowed only if a woman’s life is in danger. Regardless of your opinion, a lot of women around the world still do not have basic rights.

According to UNICEF, more than 700 million women alive today were married before they were 18. Around 1 in 3 of those women were married before they were 15. Many countries still do not explicitly consider marital rape a crime, and there are women who are still being jailed for decades after suffering still-births.

There are survivors of forced sterilization who are still awaiting justice, and women continue to be sexually harassed in public. Sexual assault in places that should be considered safe still happens.

The wage gap is also a relevant issue. In the United States, women make 80 cents to the man’s $1. On the surface of these statistics, someone could say that this isn’t that big of a gap and that’s the best we are going to get. But, that’s still over two times the size of many other industrialized countries.

Unequal education is also another pressing issue. According to Worldbank.org, in Africa and South Asia for example, boys remain 1.55 times more likely to complete secondary education than girls. The importance for women to have the option and be encouraged to go to school is extremely important for closing the gender gap in our world.

These are the types of things that we tend to ignore either because they don’t happen in our country or we think that they aren’t happening today. International Women’s Day shouldn’t be the only day when issues women face get recognition.