PRESIDENT's MESSAGE

In each issue of the IETE Newsletter, professional achievements by two prominent women in various centres are highlighted. On this important Day this year, it gives me immense pleasure to share my thoughts with you. IETE has a Women Empowerment in Engineering Committee (WEEC) for motivating women performers in the fields of Electronic, Telecommunication, Computers, IT and allied specialities.

International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated globally on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

IWD is devoted to celebrating the achievements of women and seeking gender equality. Rallies are held in major cities urging people to challenge gender stereotypes, call out discrimination, draw attention to bias, and seek out inclusion.

United Nations' theme for 2023 is 'DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality'.

UN Secretary-General, António Guterres outlining priorities for 2023 in his address to the General Assembly, remarked that “Gender equality is both a fundamental human right, and a solution to some of our greatest global challenges. But half of humanity is held back by the most widespread human rights abuse of our time...". Gender equality is so important to the UN that it’s central to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And the continued fight for women’s rights is marked each year by International Women’s Day.

Historically, it all began way back in February 1909 in America. Next year, at the 2nd International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, Denmark, women’s rights activist Clara Zetkin called for an international women’s day to give women a greater voice to further their demands for equal rights. In 1913, the date for IWD was fixed as 8 March.

Today, the world has changed a lot but earlier women were not allowed to vote: there was a women's suffrage march in London on 8 March 1914, calling for women's right to vote, at which campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested! The UN celebrated IWD for the first time in 1975.

I urge all Centres, sub-centres and ISFs to hold special online or offline programs to mark the occasion, on suitable date. Jai Hind!


Prof (Dr) V Gunasekhar Reddy
President