International Women's Day – all changes matter

The idea of an International Women's day was proposed and approved in Copenhagen in 1910 by 100 women from 17 countries including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. A year later, more than one million women and men in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland attended rallies to improve gender equality and International Women's Day was marked for the first time on March 19 that same year. Since 1975, the day has been celebrated by the United Nations on March 8. The focus has changed during the last century and more efforts have been invested in women's right to work, vote and improving their access to education and health care. In the Nordic countries, although we have not achieved gender parity in all areas of life, we are much closer to this aim than women in developing countries. However, some issues are global and often unspoken. Women and men in all countries and from all socio-economic backgrounds may be subject to domestic violence. Psychological and emotional abuses are often difficult to recognize, because the survivors try to hide it until the very end. Bringing up domestic violence can be difficult due to shame, guilt and the risk of stigmatization. Sometimes simply asking the question: "Have you faced physical, psychological or sexual violence in your intimate relationship?" can be key in helping your patient. The theme for International Women's day 2017 is "Be bold for change: help forge a better working world – a more gender inclusive world". Being bold may feel unfamiliar and even like a challenge for some of us, but it was most certainly a necessity for our ancestors and still is for many people, especially women, around the world to achieve basic rights such as access to health care. So how can we be bold for change? Taking steps from raising awareness to concrete action should be our goal, both locally and globally. The most important thing is to be aware and act. When we hear that one woman out of three has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime, that one woman every two minutes still dies from pregnancy related causes and childbirth (http://www.unfpa.org/maternal-health), about 225 million have an unmet need for family planning (http://who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs351/en/) and more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation worldwide (http://www.unfpa.org/female-genital-mutilation), we need to consider how we can best help these women. To join forces with different stakeholders could help us to accelerate the process of achieving gender parity, which means a better quality of life for everybody. Different geographical areas have specific challenges in respecting human rights and trying to achieve gender equality. In all countries and societies there is a need to overcome conscious and unconscious biases. This must be kept in mind when we bring up our children, teach medical students and search for academic or political leaders. Unfortunately, the political situation is unstable in several countries and joint efforts are needed to meet even the basic needs of life. It has been estimated that the current global number of refugees is over 10 million, of which over 50% are women. This means that millions of women, men and children are victims of war and subjected to random, arbitrary violence and abuse at refugee camps or when displaced in their country of origin. We are all willing to help as individuals and as organizations. NFOG, FIGO and their member societies can offer their knowledge and expertise to meet the unique needs of women in these extreme conditions. A week before Women's Day, FIGO will be running a communication campaign, based on the work of the FIGO Committee on Women's Health and Human Rights. The campaign will focus on different topics of importance each day: Adoption of a Healthy Lifestyle, Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections, Contraception, Preconception Counselling, Safe Pregnancy and Delivery, Fertility Preservation, Prevention of Gender-based Violence. It will end on March 8 with the topic of Respectful Behavior, which is the basis for improvement in all areas of human rights including gender equality. Obstetricians and gynecologists are in a unique and privileged position within efforts to improve the living conditions of women and families worldwide. We should make use of this opportunity. In addition to our professional work, we can raise our voice in public debates, on social media or even in our children's schools; all changes matter. Fetal Therapy Course, Stockholm, Sweden on 22-23 April 2017 (http://fetalcareacademy.org) World Congress on Endometriosis, Vancouver, Canada on 17-20 May 2017 (http://endometriosis.ca/world-congress/wce2017/) Nordic Network for Fetal Medicine (NNFM) meeting, Helsinki, Finland on 18-19 May 2017 (http://www.nnfm.org) International Society of Placenta Associations (IFPA) meeting, Manchester, UK on 30 August to 2 September 2017 (http://www.ifpa2017.org) AAGL Global Endometriosis Summit, Reykjavik, Iceland on 20-21 July 2017 (https://www.aagl.org/iceland/)

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