In our still-patriarchal society, women, although discriminated, keep struggling. They build new realities and make a difference. They suffer from social stigma, oppression, family pressure and abuse, but they persist in the fight for a world in which they all have a voice and everyone has a decent life.
Women, mothers, girlfriends, sisters, partners, godmothers, wives, aunts, grandmothers, cooks, laundresses, nurses, teachers, nurses... Women are present in the entire lifetime. They participate and change situations. The world is full of women’s synergy and only they/we transform the reality and weave new pathways of fraternity. All of this is despite the fact that the situation of the world’s women is still worrisome: Two out of three illiterate persons in the world are women,we constitute 60% of the workforce on the planet but we do not earn more than 10% of the global income, only 1% of women own land, and domestic violence is the leading cause of death for women between 14 and 44 years.
The conquest of rights and solidarity with women in the world of work are the fundamental way to a world of justice.
There are many countries where women join hands with other movements and organizations to commemorate the importance of their fight for a fairer world free from violence against women. A world where all woman, from their different approaches, have a right to life with dignity, free from any oppression or repression.
In the World Movement of Christian Workers (WMCW), women, men and young people of all social classes and professional categories are inserted and integrated into different types of actions for the fight, like women in New York did it on 8th March, 1857.
Lots of women who assume responsibilities as heads of households in different countries are the first to feel in their own flesh the impact of an evil capitalist system that oppresses, a system that leads many young people and teenagers away from their families and forces these women to let their children go in search of a better life. Many times they end up on the streets and therefore die prematurely.
There are many countries where women work sun up to sundown in the fields, in subhuman conditions, in the informal economy or in precarious jobs. We see a strong presence of women in industry. In this sector, women are frequently exposed to the risks of industrial chemicals and thus to many diseases. All of them find hope in the teachings provided by training movements and support groups such as ECOSOL (Social and Solidarity-based Economy).
We would like to highlight the efforts of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which is always attentive to all types of violence suffered by women, and is constantly seeking ways, together with other organizations, to improve workers quality of life, mainly for those working in domestic jobs and the informal sector, a category mostly composed of women.
We emphasize that in recent years, some countries have made progress in improving the quality of life of women because they have organized themselves. But we must remember that, despite that progress, every second a woman is victim of violence or is killedin the world, in many cases by their partners, who do not accept that the woman searches for a job or for any other way to be independent, coming out of oppression.
In spite of all the progress and the training work done, WMCW continues the struggle about gender related issues, together with all its member movements in the four continents and with sister organizations, in order to find ways and workable solutions based on the reality of every working woman.
