March_SharonBushIt is my hope to inform more people that March is Women’s History Month because many people don’t know or forget how important it is. This March, UN Women For Peace Association, of which I am a board member, is marching in March for not just women’s rights but all human rights. It is a reminder that our struggle continues. It is also a way for us to stand (and march) in solidarity for those countless women who live in inhumane situations. Across the world, a reported 70 percent of women are physically or sexually attacked by an intimate partner, almost 5 million women are subject to abject poverty, 60 million children are child brides, slaves, or forced into human trafficking, and 140 million are subjects of genital mutilation.

If I take a minute to think of every single of those hundreds of millions of people as mothers and daughters, it’s impossible not to do something so I will be marching and I truly hope you’ll join us.

Below are the details from the UN Women for Peace Website regarding the event where you can sign up or donate to the cause:

United Nations Women for Peace Association will hold its Fourth Annual March to End Violence Against Women on March 5th, 2016.

Speakers will begin at 11 A.M.

March will commence at 11:30 A.M.

Location: 

Dag Hammarskjold Plaza

833 United Nations Plaza

New York, NY 10017

(click here to view in Google Maps)

Another march that will be taking place this month in association with UN Women for Peace Association: The March for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights which is taking place on March 8th is being organized by UN Women in collaboration with the City of New York, NGO-CSW, the Working Group on Girls, the Man Up Campaign and the UN Women for Peace Association.

The UN Women’s March will celebrate the achievements women and girls have made around the world since 1995. It makes sense to commemorate the courageous women on this iconic 20-year anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on March 8th – International Women’s Day (IWD).

Since IWD’s earliest observance was in February 28, 1909 in New York in remembrance of an International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, the goal of IWD’s has always been to bring empowerment to women and has grown into a women’s human rights organization. The following year, the International Women’s Conference was organized inspired in part by the American movement. 100 female delegates from 17 countries agreed that the idea was to be employed as a strategy to promote equal rights, including women’s suffrage..

By March of 1911, IWD was being recognized by over a million people across Europe.

A year later, IWD was marked for the first time, by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. With the suffragette movement on the rise, IWD was often a vehicle for women raise awareness about sex discrimination and the right for women to vote.

Both events will also be opportunities to shine a light on the need for our commitment to immediate actions towards achieving gender equality by 2030. The March for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights start at:

Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th Street and 2nd Avenue) at 2:30 p.m. and end at Times Square (42nd Street and 7th Avenue) at 5:00 p.m on March 8th.

More information on how to join by marching or donating, visit their site by clicking HERE.

Hope to see you soon!

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