Near Neighbours Programme National Director Elizabeth Carnelley writes;
With 10 out of 10 local coordinators who are women, at Near Neighbours we celebrate International Women’s Day every day of the year!
We do it by recognising the achievements of women, their (too often unsung) leadership role in our communities, their resilience, and their struggle for equality.
This year we have an additional reason to celebrate IWD: Covid-19 and its negative impact on women and on gender equality.
The virus has hit harder those economic sectors (retail, hospitality) where women are overrepresented: as a result, though women make up 39 percent of global employment, they have accounted for 54 percent of overall job losses during the pandemic.
In addition, the lockdown has increased the burden of unpaid care, which is disproportionately carried by women; women spent, on average, 62 hours per week caring for children (compared to 36 hours for men) and 23 hours per week doing housework (15 hours for men).
Finally, the Covid pandemic has produced a massive surge in domestic violence (with mainly women and young girls as victims).
For these reasons, we will continue to celebrate women every day of the year, and to support those who have been pushed to the edge of society and have been denied an active voice, identity or place in their local community.
