ROME, March 7, 2017 (IPS) – Basic rights always need champions, and that’s truer today than it ought to be as around the world we see an unwelcome pattern of reaction to modern complexities ranging from globalization and automation to austerity and dwindling wages. One alarming example is how the agenda of promoting women’s rights, so far from completion, is being pushed back rather than forward.
IPS has long strived for gender equality and reported from every corner of the world on women’s conditions and their desire for equality on multiple fronts. Expected progress risks reversal, at times due to implicit bias in access to emerging technologies and at times due to outright political reaction.
Things cannot be taken for granted. Protectionism and populism are not going to contribute to the world we all need, one that rises to respond to the threats posed by climate change and to the pledge to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger once and for all. Women’s rights are key to progress on all fronts.
To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017, IPS has invited people from all quarters, from policy makers and political and cultural influencers to ordinary people with challenging daily lives, to offer their opinions, news and views on how the women of the world – able as we’ve seen to take to the streets and argue their own case – should navigate a time of such uncertainty.
This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8.
