Whereas there are more 3,000,000,000 women in the world,
representing 49.7 percent of the world’s population;
Whereas women continue to play the predominant role in
caring for families within the home, as well as increasingly supporting their
families economically by working outside the home;
Whereas women worldwide participate in diplomacy and
politics, contribute to the growth of economies, and improve the quality of the
lives of their families, communities, and countries;
Whereas women leaders have recently made significant
strides, including through the 2007 election of Representative Nancy Pelosi as
the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the
2006 election of Michelle Bachelet as the first female President of Chile, the
2006 election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as President of Liberia and the first
female President in the history of Africa, and the 2005 election of Angela
Merkel as the first female Chancellor of Germany and who will also serve in
2007 as the second woman to chair a G-8 summit;
Whereas women now account for 80 percent of the world’s
70,000,000 micro-borrowers, 75 percent of the 28,000 United States loans
supporting small business in Afghanistan are given to women, and 11 women are
chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies in the United States;
Whereas, in the United States, women are graduating from
high school and earning bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees at rates
greater than men, with 88 percent of women between the ages of 25 and 29 having
obtained high school diplomas and 31 percent of women between the ages of 25 of
29 having earned bachelor’s degrees;
Whereas even with the tremendous gains for women during
the past 20 years, women still face political and economic obstacles, struggle
for basic rights, face discrimination, and are targets of gender-based violence
all over the world;
Whereas women remain vastly underrepresented worldwide in
national and local legislatures, accounting on average for less than 10 percent
of the seats in legislatures in most countries, and in no developing region do
women hold more than 8 percent of legislative positions;
Whereas women work two-thirds of the world's working hours
and produce half of the world's food, yet earn only 1 percent of the world's
income and own less than 1 percent of the world's property;
Whereas, in the United States between 1995 and 2000,
female managers earned less than their male counterparts in the 10 industries
that employ the vast majority of all female employees;
Whereas, of the 1,300,000,000 people living in poverty
around the world, 70 percent are women;
Whereas, according to the United States Agency for
International Development, two-thirds of the 876,000,000 illiterate individuals
worldwide are women, two-thirds of the 125,000,000 school-aged children who are
not attending school worldwide are girls, and girls around the world are less
likely to complete school than boys;
Whereas women account for half of all cases of HIV/AIDS
worldwide, approximately 42,000,000 cases, and in countries with a high
prevalence of HIV, young women are at a higher risk than young men of
contracting HIV;
Whereas each year over 500,000 women globally die during
childbirth or pregnancy;
Whereas domestic violence causes more deaths and
disabilities among women between the ages of 15 and 44 than cancer, malaria,
traffic accidents, and war;
Whereas worldwide at least 1 out of every 3 women and
girls has been beaten in her lifetime, and usually the abuser is a member of
the victim's family or is someone else known to the victim;
Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, at least 1 out of every 6 women and girls in the United States has
been sexually abused in her lifetime;
Whereas, in the Unites States, one-third of the women
murdered each year are killed by current or former husbands or
boyfriends;
Whereas 130,000,000 girls and young women worldwide have
been subjected to female genital mutilation and it is estimated that 10,000
girls are at risk of being subjected to the practice in the United
States;
Whereas, according to the Congressional Research Service
and the Department of State, illegal trafficking in women and children for
forced labor, domestic servitude, or sexual exploitation involves between
600,000 and 900,000 women and children each year, of whom 17,500 are
transported into the United States;
Whereas between 75 and 80 percent of the world's
27,000,000 refugees are women and children;
Whereas, in Iraq, women are increasingly becoming the
targets of violence by Islamic extremists, street gangs, and elements within
the anti-occupation insurgency;
Whereas, in Darfur, a growing number of women and girls
are being raped, mainly by militia members who use sexual violence as a weapon
of war;
Whereas, in Afghanistan, Safia Ama Jan, the former
Director of Women’s Affairs, became the first female assassinated since the
fall of the Taliban; and
Whereas March 8 of each year has been known as
International Women's Day
for the last century, and is a day on
which people, often divided by ethnicity, language, culture, and income, come
together to celebrate a common struggle for women's equality, justice, and
peace: Now, therefore, be it
That the Senate—
(1)supports the
goals of International Women's Day
;
(2)recognizes and
honors the women in the United States and in other countries who have fought
and continue to struggle for gender equality and women's rights;
(3)reaffirms its
commitment to ending discrimination and violence against women and girls, to
ensuring the safety and welfare of women and girls, and to pursuing policies
that guarantee the basic rights of women and girls both in the United States
and in other countries;
(4)urges the
President to reaffirm his commitment to pursue policies to protect the health
and rights of women and girls; and
(5)encourages the
people of the United States to observe International Women's Day with
appropriate programs and activities.