Whereas there are over 3,000,000,000 women in the world,
representing 51 percent of the world's population;
Whereas women continue to play the prominent role in
caring for families within the home as well as serving as economic
earners;
Whereas women worldwide are participating in the world of
diplomacy and politics, contributing to the growth of economies, and improving
the quality of the lives of their families, communities, and nations;
Whereas women leaders have recently made significant
strides, including the 2010 election of Dilma Rousseff as the first female
President of Brazil, the 2009 election of Johanna Sigurdardottir as the first
female Prime Minister of Iceland, the 2007 election of Congresswoman Nancy
Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the United States House of
Representatives, the 2006 election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as the President of
Liberia, the first female President in Africa's history, and the 2005 election
of Angela Merkel as the first female Chancellor of Germany, who also served as
the second woman to chair a G8 summit in 2007;
Whereas women account for 80 percent of the world's
70,000,000 micro-borrowers, and 75 percent of the 28,000 United States loans
supporting small businesses in Afghanistan are given to women;
Whereas there are more than 200,000,000 women
entrepreneurs worldwide and 15 women are chief executive officers of Fortune
500 companies;
Whereas despite tremendous gains over the past 20 years,
women still face political and economic obstacles, struggle for basic rights,
face the threat of discrimination, and are targets of violence all over the
world;
Whereas worldwide, women remain vastly underrepresented in
national and local assemblies, accounting on average for less than 20 percent
of the seats in parliament;
Whereas women work two-thirds of the world's working
hours, produce half of the world's food, yet earn just one-third of the world's
income and own less than 2 percent of the world's land;
Whereas women invest 80 percent of their incomes in their
families and in their communities;
Whereas 70 percent of the 1,300,000,000 people living in
poverty around the world are women and children;
Whereas 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 are less
likely to complete school than boys according to the United States Agency for
International Development;
Whereas worldwide, women account for more than half of the
more than 33,000,000 adults living with HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS is the leading
cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age;
Whereas globally, nearly 1,000 women die, everyday, from
childbirth and pregnancy related causes;
Whereas domestic violence causes more deaths and
disabilities among women between the ages of 15 and 44 than cancer, malaria,
traffic accidents, and war combined;
Whereas around the world, at least 1 out of every 3 women
and girls has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way in her
lifetime;
Whereas worldwide, 140,000,000 girls and young women have
been subjected to female genital mutilation, and it is estimated that 3,000,000
girls are at risk of being subjected to this practice;
Whereas illegal trafficking in women and children for
forced labor, domestic servitude, or sexual exploitation involves between
1,000,000 and 2,000,000 women and children each year, of whom 50,000 are
transported into the United States, according to the Congressional Research
Service and the Department of State;
Whereas 75 percent of the world's 43,000,000 forcibly
displaced individuals are women and children;
Whereas in times and places of conflict and war, women and
girls continue to be the focus of extreme violence and intimidation and face
tremendous obstacles to legal recourse and justice;
Whereas March 8 has become 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; and
Whereas the people of the United States should be
encouraged to participate in International Women's Day: Now, therefore, be
it
That the House of
Representatives—
(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 equality in the face of adversity;
(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 human rights of women and girls both in the United
States and in other countries; and
(4)encourages the
President to—
(A)reaffirm his commitment to pursue policies
to protect fundamental human rights and civil liberties, particularly those of
women and girls; and
(B)issue a
proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe
International Women's Day with appropriate programs and activities.