ILO to celebrate working women who have been "breaking boundaries and driving change"

March 2007

The International Labour Office (ILO) will mark International Women's Day this year with a range of events designed to celebrate working women who have been "breaking boundaries and driving change". These include a special public event to be held on Thursday, 8 March and the launch of a new study on the state of women in the world of work, both now and over the past decade.

At ILO headquarters in Geneva, two working women who have been pioneers in unique areas in the advancement of women will participate in a round-table event on Thursday, 8 March to discuss how they broke the boundaries of change.

Ms. Anousheh Ansari, an entrepreneur and first woman private space explorer and Ms. Rabiatu Serah Diallo, the first African to be a General Secretary of a national labour organization and an active campaigner for workers' rights in Guinea will address the gathering, which begins at 10 a.m. in the ILO Governing Body room. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia will issue a statement on International Women's Day.

Global Employment Trends for women

The ILO will also issue a new study entitled "Global Employment Trends for Women, Brief 2007". The study provides a concise overview of the state of women in labour markets worldwide, including new data on the number of women who are in work, the number who are unemployed and what it calls the "feminization of working poverty". The study also analyzes the evolution of female participation in labour markets over the past decade.

Other publications

The ILO will also issue a new publication composed of articles from World of Work magazine 1999-2006 "Gender equality around the world". The book provides a decade-long overview of challenges and good practices in gender equality in the world of work covering such issues as workplace discrimination, women jobseekers in Estonia, an innovative life-cycle approach to gender equality in Tanzania, self-employed women in India, progressive policies on paternity leave in Norway, female domestic workers in the Philippines, women who cover wars or find themselves fighting for their lives in armed conflicts, women in sports and many more.

A new fact sheet on violence against women and girls will also be available from the ILO Gender Bureau. This two-page document, comprising facts and figures, gives an overall picture of the definition, extent, and cost of violence against women and girls in the world and in the workplace and calls for an end to impunity.

Biographical information of participants in the 8 March Geneva event

On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari captured headlines around the world as the first woman private space explorer after she spent eight days aboard the International Space Station. An active proponent of world-changing technologies and social entrepreneurship, she is currently the co-founder and chairwoman of the technology company, Prodea Systems.

Rabiatu Serah Diallo: An active campaigner for workers' rights since her early youth, she is the first woman to hold the post of General Secretary of the Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs de Guinée (CNTG) and the first woman to attain such a position in an African country. She has been working on all fronts in her country, Guinea, which faces severe poverty and has been the scene of violent clashes over recent weeks.