Today is International Women's Day:

Empowerment and equality

By Indunil Thenuwara

One of the most news-worthy moments at this year's Academy Awards, which took place on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles was the acceptance speech made by Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette.

The star who won the Oscar for her role in the movie Boyhood, accepted her award with an inspiring speech on women's rights and equality.

After thanking a long list of people, she ended her speech on a powerful note, "To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America."

Her comments were met with loud applause from other prominent women in the audience such as Meryl Streep, who happened to be a fellow nominee for the award with Arquette, and Jennifer Lopez, and cast the spotlight once again on the wage disparity between men and women in the US movie industry.

Equal pay has been a controversial subject in Hollywood and the rest of America (and indeed the rest of the world) for a long time. The recently leaked emails from Sony Pictures further revealed the gender inequality which exists in the entertainment industry.

It was revealed that the male stars of the movie American Hustle - Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper - were paid nine percent of the profits of the movie, while the female stars - Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence (despite being some of the most bankable A-listers and the latter also an Oscar Best Actress winner) - received only seven percent of the profits.

Disparity

The hacking of emails opened a can of worms, relating to the wide gender disparity in wages. Of the 17 Sony employees who earned more than one millions dollars a year, only one was a woman.

It was also revealed that Michael de Luca, Co-president of Columbia Pictures, earned almost one million dollars more than his female counterpart Hannah Minghella. In 2005, 85 of the top 100 earners at Sony Pictures were men.

The average American female employee, it is believed, was paid 78 percent of what men were paid in 2013.

Arquette's speech has created a buzz on social-media platforms around the topic of income disparity, drawing attention to this major issue related to gender discrimination, not just in the US, but across the world.

The gender pay gap is a reality worldwide despite this being the 21st Century.

Even in the European Union, which has made some of the most progressive steps with regard to women's empowerment, women on average earn around 16 percent less per hour than men.

In highly industrialised Germany, the figure is said to be 20 percent. This, despite women doing better at school and university than men! The wage gap results in women earning less over their lifetimes, leading to lower pensions and a risk of poverty in old age.

One may also remember that it was as recently as 2007 that the All England Club, which hosts the premier tennis tournament, the Wimbledon Championship, decided to pay equal prize money to the men's and women's champions.

Negotiation

In Sri Lanka, the gender pay gap may not be a big issue in the public sector as salaries are based on job categories and employment grades, but in the private sector where salaries are determined through a process of negotiation, the gap still exists.

It's especially prevalent in the bottom end of the wage spectrum - unskilled labour such as in the agriculture, estate and construction sectors.

A study carried out by a team from the University of Peradeniya a few years ago had revealed that the wage gap at the bottom level could be as high 33 percent in the private sector and 27 percent in the public sector.

At the top end of the spectrum, the gap was narrower in the public sector at five-six percent, but still high in the private sector, at around 20 percent.

The salary disparity, however, is just one form of discrimination against women whom Mao Tse-tung famously described as "holding up half the sky". Women also have to tackle physical, psychological and verbal abuse, sexual and other forms of harassment and violence including rape and even death and disability at the hands of men among a host of other discriminatory practices.

Despite advances made in the right direction, women's immense contribution to the national economies of the world, to social and cultural development, to science, technology and art, to life itself, is not fully recognised and appreciated.

A gaping chasm remains between legal equality and individuals' behaviour and attitudes and there really is no place on Earth where men and women truly enjoy equal rights, privileges and opportunities.

However, this is not a situation which should continue to be tolerated in the 21st Century.

If women are equally educated, qualified, smart and capable as men, why should they settle for less? In the civilised world, it is a shame that one half of humanity is allowed to control and dominate the other half.

Equality

As we celebrate International Women's Day on March 8 (today), the message of equality for all should ring loud and clear. According to UN Women, "the Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities".

To this end, the theme for this year's event is 'Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!' which was the clarion call of the UN Women's Beijing+20 campaign. The Day will focus on the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, where 189 government leaders gathered in the Chinese capital in 1995 to sign the landmark roadmap setting the agenda for realising women's rights.

The most comprehensive global agreement on women's empowerment and gender equality focuses on 12 critical areas and envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination.

Although much progress has been made since then, there is still a long way to go and the 20th anniversary of the conference provides a fresh opportunity to galvanise political will, reconnect and mobilise the public towards reaching this goal. While celebrating the achievements made in ensuring gender equal laws and practices, the event will also re-address the gaps that remain.

From March 9-20, the 59th Commission on the Status of Women will review global implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and take stock of where women stand in the world today.

Over 1,100 Non-Governmental Organisations and 8,600 representatives have registered to participate in the session. About 200 side-events hosted by governments and UN agencies including a march for gender equality and women's rights as well as about 450 parallel events by civil society would take place. It is expected that these events would generate momentum and urgency for global actions on women's rights and gender equality.

Submissive

History has shown that countries and societies where women hold high positions have grown and developed over others where women remain submissive. As UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka had said in her message for the launch of the Beijing+20 campaign last year, "countries with higher levels of gender equality have higher economic growth.

Companies with more women on their boards have higher returns to shareholders. Parliaments with more women consider a broader range of issues and adopt more legislation on health, education, anti-discrimination, and child support. Peace agreements forged by female and male negotiators last longer and are more stable.

"Studies show that for every one additional year of education for women, child mortality decreases by 9.5 percent.

Equalising access to resources and services for women farmers would boost output and eliminate hunger for 150 million people.

A billion women will enter the world economy in the next decade.

With equal opportunities, their impact on our future prosperity will be a global game-changer."

As part of her message for International Women's Day 2015 which falls today, Mlambo-Ngcuka called on countries to "step it up" for gender equality, with substantive progress by 2020 to achieve the aim of reaching 'Planet 50:50' before 2030. She said the trajectory of progress has been sluggish which means a girl child born today would have to wait 80 years before she sees an equal world. Speedier action is called for in this regard, she said.

This is the message that should reverberate around the world, not just today, but every day of the year.

As Patricia Arquette remarked while accepting her Academy Award, "It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women".