IT has been a century since over 100 women from 17 countries representing unions, socialist and communist parties, working women’s clubs, and the first women elected to the Finnish parliament gathered in Copenhagen for the second International Conference of Working Women and declared International Women’s Day.

Next year would mark the 100th year of the first International Women’s Day commemoration when more than a million women and men held simultaneous rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland to campaign for women’s right to work, vote, be trained, and to hold public office, and for an end to discrimination.

Since the emergence of the working women’s movement and the commemoration of International Women’s Day, women all over the world have won their right to vote and to hold public office. Women have, since then, been organizing themselves in unions, political parties, mass organizations, and associations.

It is no longer a rarity to see women heads of state and those holding key positions in parliaments and governments. Laws and policies to protect women from rape, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and other forms of violence against women have been passed. Likewise, there are already laws and policies aimed at ending discrimination against women.

But why is it that cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against women are still being committed; women are still being paid less than their male counterparts; the work of women from some sectors such as agriculture remain unpaid and unrecognized. Why is it that the problem of multiple burden — juggling between jobs, household chores, and taking care of the children — is still being shouldered by women? We still see women migrants being made to work in slave-like conditions, being raped and sent home worse off than when they left to work abroad?

It is because while the formal rights of women such as the right to vote and hold office as well as the right to equal protection before the law have been institutionalized, the most basic rights of women such as the right to work and a decent living, and freedom from all forms of oppression and exploitation have not yet been fully realized.

It is still a long, hard, struggle ahead for women’s social emancipation. (Bulatlat)