This is the final CSW 56 blog! Thank
you to our team of Soroptimist delegates who have been keeping us up to
date with all the news from New York. This final blog comes from Catherine Evans who attended the second week of CSW – including the International Women’s Day celebrations which took place on March 7th. 

International Women’s Day was
celebrated at the UN during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on 7^th
March.  There were two very informative
panels of speakers in the morning. Ban ki Moon opened proceedings and
explained how he had made it his mission to increase the number of women in
significant positions at the UN. He was
very pleased to have seen an increase in the number of women become UN
Ambassadors and an increase in the number of female Foreign ministers during
his term.

There had also been an
increase in the number of women heads of state. 
He said that he would continue to appoint women to significant positions during his
term. He appreciated that 840 million suffered from poverty world wide and that
rural women could contribute more to food production but needed equality in the
rural community. Financing for
agriculture must prioritise rural women to achieve MDG 1.  He reminded the audience (mostly women!)
that gender equality was not just the responsibility of women but the
responsibility of civil society everywhere.

A video prepared by Michele
Bachelet reminded the audience that if we are to have a sustainable future,
there must be change in the status of women worldwide. If not, a sustainable future cannot be achieved. Climate change is impacting on food supplies. As women are generally the major agricultural workers without equity in
land or a say in what happens to it, unless women are empowered, sufficient
food supplies will not be achieved to feed the increasing world population.

The first panel discussion that
followed Ban ki Moon’s opening address and the pre-recorded video presentation
from Ms Bachelet, looked at the disadvantages that rural women in general
experience and reminded the audience that indigenous women suffer even more
discrimination because they are severely dislocated from urban areas where
education is achievable, they are also severely financially disadvantaged and
often lack transportation to attend education facilities beyond primary
school.

The panel speaker from Ecuador, an indigenous woman had parents
who believed that education was important and ensured that she achieved
education past primary school. She
stated that education was extremely important to reduce the inequities
resulting from the poor infrastructure for rural and especially indigenous
communities’ Limited transport, lack of communication, lack of health services,
all exacerbated the opportunities for women in rural and indigenous
communities. 

The second panel that morning included Admiral Fergusson from the US
Navy who brought with him a number of women officers and senior staff. 
He indicated that the US Navy had 55,000 women who had access to 93% of
the positions available.  The only area of
the navy where women were excluded were the SEAL forces.  He indicated that it appeared that there
needed to be 20% as a critical mass to encourage women to move forward and seek
promotion.  He was quite definite that
Increasing the number of women in the Navy improved the behaviour of the
men. 

Certain strategies were implemented
to achieve the advancement of women in the navy.  Mentoring programs were implemented and these
could be electronic if not co-located, professional leadership programs were
supported and life work arrangements were available for up to 3 years to allow
for pregnancy/maternity leave and child care. There were also 1 year deferment options from operational duty and
paternity provisions for shorter periods. 
One of the advantages of women was their sensitivity to culture. The organisation has to change and there are
many married women in the US Navy now. 
The submarines were the last division to include women but one of the
captains of a submarine was included in his entourage.

The speaker on the peace keeping forces, also indicated that a
positive recruitment and supportive culture had been introduced to get more
women into the peacekeeping forces. 
Currently there are 0.3% women in the peace keeping forces but he aimed
to achieve 7% women by 2015. He reiterated the comments of admiral fergusson
that women were far more sensitive in cultural matters.

He was aware of the attitudes of some servicemen but all cases of
harassment whether sexual or not were dealt with promptly and fairly so service
men and women knew that harassment was not acceptable.

The actual IWD was a bright sunny day and about 250 women wearing
yellow sashes walked from 1^st Avenue up 42^nd Street to 2^nd
Avenue and along 2^nd
Avenue to 47^th Street to the marshalling area just in front of the UN building. All wore yellow sashes which carried a message about
empowering women.

It was a happy band
of walkers! On arrival at the assembly area
we sang and danced and had an enjoyable time for an hour or so before
dispersing and attending afternoon side events at the church centre or the
Salvation Army building… Another great IWD celebration!