CARE Celebrates International Women's Day

CARE Celebrates International Women's Day

This March 8, International Women's Day, we celebrate the progress made by women throughout the world in advancing equality, justice, peace and development.

In many countries, women are meeting the challenges of leadership and contributing to positive social change in their families and societies. They are increasingly holding public office at all levels of government. Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in government of any country. Liberians recently elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as their president; she is the first woman elected president in Africa. This month Michelle Bachelet will be inaugurated as the first female president of Chile. We at CARE have also made significant strides toward gender equity within our senior leadership, most recently with the election of Helene D. Gayle as our next president and CEO.

We are proud of our role in advancing gender equity around the world. CARE has helped millions of women and girls in poor communities achieve greater self-esteem, mobility, income generation, access to education, control over their own lives, and status and influence in their households and communities. There is still a long way to go; even now women constitute 75 percent of the poorest people in the world. But I am excited by what we have accomplished together over the past decade — and with your help, I am certain that we will do even more to expand the rights of women in the next decade.

"She has the power to change her world. You have the power to help her do it." This is the core message of our new I Am Powerful awareness campaign. Women truly do have the power to change the world for the better. And all of us — men and women alike — have the power to help them do it. On International Women's Day and every day, let us reaffirm our commitment to advancing gender equity. It is a crucial first step toward achieving CARE's vision of a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and everyone lives in dignity and security.

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