International Women's Day in 2019: gender parity still an issue

WOMEN may hold up half the sky, as none other than Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong proclaimed some five decades ago. Yet, even with many strides made and glass ceilings smashed since, today women still lag men across key areas of society.

Hence, while the annual International Women's Day every March 8 - observed since the early 1900s, when women's oppression and suffrage was rife - celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, for many organisations and sectors the day marks still, in 2019, a bigger call to action for accelerating gender parity.

To be sure, the need to raise awareness, change attitudes and essentially harness the full potential of one half of the population has been evident for a while now around the globe, even in countries that are traditionally fairly patriarchal societies, and heeded as an economic imperative amid the manpower challenges of the day. Indeed, Japan promoted "womenomics", with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocating, upon taking office in late 2012, the economic empowerment of women among his initiatives to revive the country's economy.