" I work for an organisation called UN Women NC Australia which is the United Nations agency for gender equality and the empowerment of women. We need your help. 70 per cent of the world’s poor are women. Girls your age are being required to leave school in order to be able to work and support their families and often are forced to marry an older man before they are 18. Can you imagine if over your summer holidays you were sold to another family to clean, cook and look after children? Without pay or even a day off, you would be unlikely to see your family or friends. Can you imagine feeling hunger so extreme that you can’t see or hear properly? If you, like me, believe that young girls should not have to experience this – please help us to change the reality for so many girls around the world. March 8 is International Women’s Day. Acknowledged around the world, IWD is an opportunity for us to support our sisters across the world, ensuring they have basic rights and access to basic health and education services. It is a day to celebrate the rights which women and girls are afforded in Australia, but also to recognise that we have a long way to go before we are treated equally and respectfully. My organisation believes that men can and should play an important role in promoting gender equality. Not only is it a human rights issue, but improving the lives of women benefits the whole community. We hope that all schools – girls’, boys’, and co-educational – will get involved with International Women’s Day. Please talk to your teachers and your friends about how you can support IWD 2014. Help us raise funds to ensure that girls around the world have a brighter future."
Best wishes,
Julie McKay Executive Director Australian National Committee for UN Women
Why is it important for women to earn an income of their own?
Why is it important for girls to get an education?
Why is it important for girls (and boys) to have role models in their community?
Who do you look up to?
The Australian National Committee for UN Women's theme for International Women’s Day 2014 is Ending Poverty for Women and Girls through Economic Empowerment.
70% of the global poor are women.
Although women perform 2/3 of the world's work, they earn less than 10% of the world's wages.
Women are far more likely than men to live in poverty because of discrimination and lack of access to education, employment and financial services.
Learn more:
WHY DO SO MANY WOMEN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD LIVE IN POVERTY?
Some facts about females in Australia.
Demographics
Worldwide
population: 7.14 billion
Total number of
women worldwide: 3.54 billion (49.6% female)
Australian
population: 23,357,216
Total number of
women in Australia: 11,725,322 (50.2% female)
Queensland
population: 4,709,636
Total number of
women in Queensland: 2,364,237 (50.2% female)
20.8% were born
overseas
3.6% identify as
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
Life expectancy
Queensland women
are living longer, but Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have a
shorter lifespan than non-Indigenous women.
1881-1890: 49.8
years
1971: 74.7 years
2009-2011: 84.1
years
Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander women, 2005-07: 73.6 years
Fertility
The fertility rate in Queensland has
increased from the
all-time low in 2003, and is slightly above the national average.
Of all births
registered in Queensland in 2012, 6.4
per cent were to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers.
2003
–
1.804 babies per woman (lowest ever)
2012 – 1.997
babies per woman
2012 – 2.953
babies per Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman
Women head most
one parent families with 85.6% of one parent families being headed by women in
2011.
The median age for childbirth was 29.8 years
in 2012.
