Dear Sisters, Associates, and Friends,
The path to the recognition of the dignity and rights of women is perhaps the longest revolution in history.
On the agenda of the UN for this year\´s International Women\´s Day is the theme, "Towards a 50-50 Planet in 2030". It is a theme that seeks to reinforce the role of women at all levels. Placing the focus on gender equality, still yet to come, requires appropriate policies regarding income and employment, public services including protection against domestic and sexual violence, and access to education and technology, in order to promote the advancement of women and girls.
The research of the United Nations is far from encouraging. Fewer than half of adult women are employed in the official labor market and at a salary 20 to 40% lower than that of their male counterparts in their professions. A third of women workers leave their jobs because of motherhood.
Femicide, rape, harassment on the street and at work, and the abuse and violence perpetrated online as a continuation of domestic violence are a plague that nearly every day figures shamefully in the news all over the world. There is no particular age to this inhuman vortex of violence, that in many cases, has already occurred before the age of 20 years. What are we doing to change the culture and traditions which nourish and feed female inequality? How are we committed to overturning the order which, as a "natural" given, has been allowed to continue the domination of one sex over the other for centuries?
Pope Francis recently remarked that“the persistence of a certain chauvinist mindset” existing even in the most advanced society transforms women into subjects, and in the church their service “comes down to more roles of servitude than true service”.
Women have the right to be free to live without fear, to move about or to feel safe in their homes, to develop their potential, to participate in decision making and be recognized in their dignity. In different areas of the planet, our communities are fighting alongside women, building with them paths of social advancement and empowerment, but it is still too much of a local action.
Gender inequality is universal, but by no means is it inevitable. Stopping gender inequality requires the mobilization of all, national women\´s movements, leaders, organizations and individuals. Do we want to be part of this? Do we want to contribute to a world in which women of all cultures and religions have the same rights and the same freedom as men? Let us join the best initiatives for mobilization and awareness-raising campaigns in our society and in the Catholic Church, to seek to strengthen the voices of all women and fight for their recognition.
A Good Women\´s Day to all of you Sisters, Associates, and all male Friends who recognize the feminine genius and want a "50-50 planet”!
The General Council
