International Women's Day

Pin It My sister-in-law is pretty amazing.  Not only is she a great wife and mother to two pretty incredible little people, she is also a Senior Organizer for Community Engagement with Oxfam America.  She told me about International Women's Day and once I read the information, I knew I just had to share it with you!

Did you know that one in seven people in the world go to bed hungry each night?  One in seven!  And it's not because there isn't enough food to go around.  It's because there are deep imbalances in access to resources like fertile lands and water.  In fact, more than 40 percent of the world's population - 2.5 billion people - live in poverty, and many of them are women.

Women who work hard but can't earn enough to feed their families; women whose hearts when they see their children go hungry; women - half the people on earth - who need equal access to the resources that can help them overcome poverty.

Shockingly sad but true:

• Sixty-six percent of the world's work falls on women's shoulders, yet they earn only 10% of the world's income;
• If women were given the same level of access to resources that men have, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%;
• Hunger and poverty are about power and inequality, and women and girls face the biggest inequalities of all.

This International Women's Day, how about showing women everywhere you appreciate their contributions to our world?  Oxfam America is giving you a couple of really easy ways to do this: 

1. Send an International Women's Day eCard to a woman you know, to say thank you for all that she does.  Better yet, send it to several women who've made the world a better place.

2. Give the Oxfam America International Women's Day 2012 award to a woman you think has made a difference to the world.  She could be a teacher, your mom, a non-profit leader, a woman entrepreneur, the neighbor who checks up on you when you're ill…the possibilities are endless.

If we come together, we may not be able to remove the imbalances between men and women immediately.  But we will show women around the world…and in our own neighborhoods…that we care about them.  

Who do YOU know who has made a difference?

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