International Women’s Day 2021: A Statement by Soroptimist International of Europe
Soroptimist International of Europe is a global network of active women volunteers, with more than 31,000 members and 1200 Clubs, working in 5 federations in a total of 72,000 members worldwide, passionately contributing for projects and advocacy.
Our goal is to ensure that women’s future will be more equal and that future generations of girls will be raised in a world free of violence, equipped with education, enjoy all legal rights without discrimination, with care work being duly paid for, that they are able to use their economic potential to foster communities and specially, that they are enabled and empowered to be leaders and participants in public life.
When our organization was founded one century ago, Soroptimist members were pioneers and joined efforts together, worked to reach gender parity, always standing up for women’s rights in the international panorama.
It has been years of hard volunteer service and we believe to be right.
As much as the stereotypical masculine convictions invaded all sectors of our life a long time ago, we will not give up the hard task aiming that women are not only listened, but respected, and much more, followed as leaders and role models.
Is future global change done by GDP? We believe it is done by inspiration, by participative decision making, by setting expectations and rewards, by people’s development and finally by role modeling.
A sustainable developed world is an equal world and needs to be balanced and shaped more by the characteristics where women are winners.
The priorities are set by all actors, by acting towards gender inequality and focusing in the areas where women are most affected, providing the needed financial support, setting capabilities, creating economic opportunities, changing attitudes in societies and changing policies, as well as regulations.
It is vital to broaden the leadership model.
We need to invest and frontally inspire all levels of the intervention towards women and leadership, in a way we never did before.
This is not only the responsibility of governments, it is also time for social and public sector, men and women, NGOs, companies, all needed are involved to unlock gender inequality and make a positive change.
