Today, all Fijians are being reminded about the immeasurable contribution of women to the successes and triumphs of our families, communities and country.
With the theme “Give to Gain”, this year’s International Women;s Day celebration focuses on fostering gender equality through intentional, reciprocal, and collective action.
It emphasises that by investing time, resources, and knowledge into empowering women and girls – such as supporting leadership, education, and career opportunities — communities, organisations, and economies gain strength, innovation, and growth.
To fathom women’s immense input in society, we only need to consider the numerous challenges they encounter and the countless ways in which they struggle daily to weather them, so their families may survive to prosper and triumph.
Single mums and widows, many of whom live in sub-standard living conditions, and never enjoy the support of their husbands, toil on farms, in crowded markets and on the streets so that they may earn enough to feed themselves and their children.
They may walk miles on gravelly cane access roads to get a single pail of brackish water from frog-infested wells, boreholes and rivers — to clean, cook and wash.
Together with other women, they account for a sizeable share of the agricultural labour force, including informal work.
They perform the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work within families and households in rural areas.
Women, among other means, make significant contributions to agricultural production, food security and nutrition, land and natural resource management, and building climate resilience.
Women also dominate the high-skilled labour force, driven by higher education levels and growing demand for social skills in top-tier jobs.
Many are increasingly breaking the “glass ceiling” – invisible, systemic barriers that hinder their advancement to top.
Journalists read and write about these aspiring women every day. Many of their stories, attempted in the pursuit of truth, would have sounded mundane and lifeless, without women as subjects.
Women’s uniquely adverse circumstances and the manner in which their zeal and inherent determination salvage them out of the brims of suffering, make their inspiring stories worth sharing with the world.
In the month of March, we will dedicate three pages daily on stories about women’s achievements.
International Women’s Day allows us to celebrate and remember the lives of women and girls — our wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, nieces, grandmothers and granddaughters.
And in doing so, I would like to take this opportunity to salute all the inspiring women whom I have had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing in the past years. Their stories have all been worth reading and worth emulating. They give promise of a better future.
I also take this time to say ‘thank you’ to my own mother and sister who never cease to love me unconditionally.
