III 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 102 

Supporting the goals of ‘‘International Women’s Day’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 9, 2007 

Mr. BIDEN (for himself, Mrs. BOXER, Ms. CANTWELL, Mrs. CLINTON, Mrs. 

FEINSTEIN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. LANDRIEU, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mrs. MURRAY, and Ms. STABENOW) submitted the following resolution; which was 

considered and agreed to 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the goals of ‘‘International Women’s Day’’. 

Whereas there are more 3,000,000,000 women in the world, 

representing 49.7 percent of the world’s population; 

Whereas women continue to play the predominant role in caring for families within the home, as well as increasingly 

supporting their families economically by working outside 

the home; 

Whereas women worldwide participate in diplomacy and politics, contribute to the growth of economies, and improve 

the quality of the lives of their families, communities, and 

countries; 

Whereas women leaders have recently made significant 

strides, including through the 2007 election of Representative Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the 

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United States House of Representatives, the 2006 election of Michelle Bachelet as the first female President of 

Chile, the 2006 election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as 

President of Liberia and the first female President in the 

history of Africa, and the 2005 election of Angela Merkel 

as the first female Chancellor of Germany and who will 

also serve in 2007 as the second woman to chair a G– 

8 summit; 

Whereas women now account for 80 percent of the world’s 

70,000,000 micro-borrowers, 75 percent of the 28,000 

United States loans supporting small business in Afghanistan are given to women, and 11 women are chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies in the United 

States; 

Whereas, in the United States, women are graduating from 

high school and earning bachelor’s degrees and graduate 

degrees at rates greater than men, with 88 percent of 

women between the ages of 25 and 29 having obtained 

high school diplomas and 31 percent of women between 

the ages of 25 of 29 having earned bachelor’s degrees; 

Whereas even with the tremendous gains for women during 

the past 20 years, women still face political and economic 

obstacles, struggle for basic rights, face discrimination, 

and are targets of gender-based violence all over the 

world; 

Whereas women remain vastly underrepresented worldwide in 

national and local legislatures, accounting on average for 

less than 10 percent of the seats in legislatures in most 

countries, and in no developing region do women hold 

more than 8 percent of legislative positions; 

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Whereas women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours 

and produce half of the world’s food, yet earn only 1 percent of the world’s income and own less than 1 percent 

of the world’s property; 

Whereas, in the United States between 1995 and 2000, female managers earned less than their male counterparts 

in the 10 industries that employ the vast majority of all 

female employees; 

Whereas, of the 1,300,000,000 people living in poverty 

around the world, 70 percent are women; 

Whereas, according to the United States Agency for International Development, two-thirds of the 876,000,000 illiterate individuals worldwide are women, two-thirds of the 

125,000,000 school-aged children who are not attending 

school worldwide are girls, and girls around the world are 

less likely to complete school than boys; 

Whereas women account for half of all cases of HIV/AIDS 

worldwide, approximately 42,000,000 cases, and in countries with a high prevalence of HIV, young women are at 

a higher risk than young men of contracting HIV; 

Whereas each year over 500,000 women globally die during 

childbirth or pregnancy; 

Whereas domestic violence causes more deaths and disabilities among women between the ages of 15 and 44 than 

cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war; 

Whereas worldwide at least 1 out of every 3 women and girls 

has been beaten in her lifetime, and usually the abuser 

is a member of the victim’s family or is someone else 

known to the victim; 

Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention, at least 1 out of every 6 women and girls in 

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the United States has been sexually abused in her lifetime; 

Whereas, in the Unites States, one-third of the women murdered each year are killed by current or former husbands 

or boyfriends; 

Whereas 130,000,000 girls and young women worldwide have 

been subjected to female genital mutilation and it is estimated that 10,000 girls are at risk of being subjected to 

the practice in the United States; 

Whereas, according to the Congressional Research Service 

and the Department of State, illegal trafficking in women 

and children for forced labor, domestic servitude, or sexual exploitation involves between 600,000 and 900,000 

women and children each year, of whom 17,500 are 

transported into the United States; 

Whereas between 75 and 80 percent of the world’s 

27,000,000 refugees are women and children; 

Whereas, in Iraq, women are increasingly becoming the targets of violence by Islamic extremists and street gangs; 

Whereas, in Darfur, a growing number of women and girls 

are being raped, mainly by militia members who use sexual violence as a weapon of war; 

Whereas, in Afghanistan, Safia Ama Jan, the former Director of Women’s Affairs, became the first female assassinated since the fall of the Taliban; and 

Whereas March 8 of each year has been known as ‘‘International Women’s Day’’ for the last century, and is a day 

on which people, often divided by ethnicity, language, culture, and income, come together to celebrate a common 

struggle for women’s equality, justice, and peace: Now, 

therefore, be it 

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1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) supports the goals of ‘‘International Wom3 en’s Day’’; 

4 (2) recognizes and honors the women in the 

5 United States and in other countries who have 

6 fought and continue to struggle for gender equality 

7 and women’s rights; 

8 (3) reaffirms its commitment to ending dis9 crimination and violence against women and girls, to 

10 ensuring the safety and welfare of women and girls, 

11 and to pursuing policies that guarantee the basic 

12 rights of women and girls both in the United States 

13 and in other countries; and 

14 (4) encourages the people of the United States 

15 to observe International Women’s Day with appro16 priate programs and activities. 

Æ 

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