For International Women's Day this Monday, aid organizations and associations urge a global perspective for greater gender justice. There is still a long way to go before gender equality is achieved.
No country in the world has yet achieved gender equality, the German Foundation for World Population criticized on Friday. In many places, he said, Corona threatens a step backward. The Social Service of Catholic Women (SkF) and the Catholic German Women's Federation (KDFB) also said the economic and social costs of the Corona pandemic hit women much harder. He said this applies, for example, to the distribution of household tasks, childcare and homeschooling.
The aid organization Brot fur die Welt (Bread for the World) and the Catholic Workers' Movement KAB (Katholische Arbeitnehmer-Bewegung, KAB) referred to the consequences of Corona for women and girls worldwide. The danger is great that girls in particular in countries of the global south will not return to school after the pandemic, said Dagmar Pruin, president of Bread for the World.
KAB national president Andreas Luttmer-Bensmann referred to the precarious situation of women in textile factories in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia and Pakistan. They have lost their jobs as a result of the lockdown and can no longer provide for their families.
Equality in Germany?
Even from the point of view of women in Germany, equality is still a long way from being achieved. This is the result of an Allensbach survey for the German Catholic Women's Association (kfd).
Around three quarters of women still see a great need for action afterwards. 22 per cent see the equality to a large extent as realized.
In particular, respondents were in favor of equal pay for men and women (86 percent). Other important ies include combating violence against women (84 percent) and cracking down on sexual harassment (80 percent).
Violence against women
The Society for Threatened Peoples recalled the violence against women members of minorities in the Chinese province Xinjiang. Inside and outside the camps, for example, sexualized violence is very widespread. Europe reacts "completely inadequately to the ever more brutal offenses".
The Bundesverband Lebensrecht referred to the exploitation of women in India or Thailand, for example, who "carry the genetic children of wealthy white couples from industrialized countries as childbearing machines at great risk to their health". In addition, the targeted abortion of girls is common in many states.
The aid organization terre des hommes lamented that the number of child marriages is increasing as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic. Parents believed this would protect their daughters from poverty and violence.
The Catholic Latin American relief organization Adveniat referred to massive violence against girls and women in southern America. "In Mexico alone last year, 3.723 women murdered," said chief executive Michael Heinz. In Corona times, many countries reported a sharp increase in domestic violence against women and girls. In addition, there are more and more deadly attacks against migrant women on the run or in their new home countries.
Initiative for women religious
The Catholic relief organization missio Aachen and the initiative Voices of Faith campaigned for the rights of women religious in the church. To that end, they launched a social media campaign #sisterwhatdoyousay (in German: #schwesterwirhoerendich) and hosted a public video conference on Monday with women religious from around the world.
"What is being done to religious sisters in the church, the waste of their potential and the disregard for the great work they do – in many cases unpaid – must no longer be accepted," said co-initiator Chantal Goetz. Dirk Bingener, head of missio, said that missio was concerned to see how women religious suffered from various abuses of power in their work.