III 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 74 

Designating March 8, 2005, as ‘‘International Women’s Day’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 8, 2005 

Mr. BIDEN (for himself, Mrs. CLINTON, Mr. LUGAR, Mr. KOHL, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Ms. STABENOW, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. BAYH, Ms. 

LANDRIEU, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. JEFFORDS, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. FEINGOLD, 

Mr. DODD, Mr. SARBANES, Mr. CORZINE, Mr. KERRY, Mr. OBAMA, Mr. 

SALAZAR, Mr. KENNEDY, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mrs. LINCOLN, Mr. HATCH, 

Mrs. FEINSTEIN, and Mr. REID) submitted the following resolution; 

which was considered and agreed to 

RESOLUTION 

Designating March 8, 2005, as ‘‘International Women’s 

Day’’. 

Whereas all over the world, women are contributing to the 

growth of economies, participating in the world of diplomacy and politics, and improving the quality of the lives 

of their families, communities, and nations; 

Whereas discrimination continues to deny women full political 

and economic equality and is often the basis for violations of women’s basic human rights; 

Whereas worldwide, the lives and health of women and girls 

continue to be endangered by violence that is directed at 

them simply because they are female; 
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Whereas worldwide, violence against women includes rape, 

genital mutilation, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, honor killings, human trafficking, dowry-related violence, female infanticide, sex-selection abortion, 

forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, and forced abortion; 

Whereas the World Health Organization asserts that domestic violence causes more deaths and disability among 

women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war; 

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

have been subjected to female genital mutilation; 

Whereas worldwide, at least 1 in 3 females has been beaten 

or sexually abused in her lifetime; 

Whereas worldwide, 20 to 50 percent of women experience 

some degree of domestic violence during marriage; 

Whereas 1 in 4 women in the United States have been raped 

or physically assaulted by an intimate partner at some 

point in their lives; 

Whereas somewhere in the United States, a woman is battered, usually by her partner, every 15 seconds; 

Whereas more than 3 women are murdered by their husbands 

or boyfriends in the United States every day; 

Whereas battering is the leading cause of injury to women 

aged 15 to 44 in the United States; 

Whereas it is estimated that 1 in 5 adolescent girls in the 

United States becomes a victim of physical or sexual 

abuse, or both, in a dating relationship; 
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Whereas worldwide, women account for 1⁄2 of all cases of 

HIV/AIDS, and in Africa, young women are 3 times 

more likely to contract the virus than men; 

Whereas worldwide, sexual violence, including marital rape, 

has been denounced as a major cause of the rapid spread 

of HIV/AIDS among women; 

Whereas between 75 and 80 percent of the world’s millions 

of refugees are women and children; 

Whereas illegal trafficking worldwide for forced labor, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation involves between 

1,000,000 and 2,000,000 women and children each year, 

of whom approximately 50,000 are transported to the 

United States; 

Whereas 2⁄3 of the world’s nearly 1,000,000,000 illiterate individuals are women; 

Whereas 2⁄3 of the children denied primary education are 

girls; 

Whereas these educational failures have serious consequences 

for the global economy and the United States national security, as well as for tens of millions of girls who are losing the chance to discover their worth and importance as 

global citizens; 

Whereas girls who are educated are more likely to have 

healthy and stable families, lower mortality rates, higher 

nutrition levels, and delayed sexual activity, and have less 

chance of contracting HIV/AIDS or having unwanted 

pregnancies; 

Whereas in most countries, women work approximately 2 

times more unpaid time than men do; 
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Whereas women work 2⁄3 of the world’s working hours and 

produce 1⁄2 of the world’s food, yet earn only 10 percent 

of the world’s income and own less than 1 percent of the 

world’s property; 

Whereas 3 in 10 households are maintained by women with 

no husband present; 

Whereas rural women produce more than 55 percent of all 

food grown in developing countries; 

Whereas it is estimated that women and girls make up more 

than 70 percent of the poorest people in the world; 

Whereas worldwide, women earn less, own less property, and 

have less access to education, employment, and health 

care than do men; 

Whereas microcredit is a stunningly simple, inexpensive tool 

that can forever alter the economic landscape for the better; 

Whereas women now make up 80 percent of the world’s 

70,000,000 microcredit borrowers, and from India to 

Nicaragua to South Africa to Costa Rica, women are 

proving that small loans can transform individual lives, 

families, and entire communities; 

Whereas nations should take steps to ensure the full participation and representation of women in political conferences, committees, plenaries, and parliaments; 

Whereas social investment, particularly investments in women 

and girls, should be an integral part of foreign policy; 

Whereas despite extraordinary advances, women still comprise the majority of the world’s poor, illiterate, and 

uneducated, remain under-compensated for the work they 

do, still do not have adequate access to medical care in 
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too many countries, are under-represented in leadership 

positions in government and business, and continue to be 

targeted for unspeakable atrocities in war and conflict; 

Whereas March 8 has become known as International Women’s Day for the last century, and is a day on which people, who are often divided by ethnicity, language, culture, 

and income, come together to celebrate a common struggle for women’s equality, justice, and peace; 

Whereas the dedication and successes of those working all 

over the world to end violence against women and girls 

and fighting for equality should be recognized; and 

Whereas the people of the United States should be encouraged to participate in International Women’s Day: Now, 

therefore be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) designates March 8, 2005, as International 

3 Women’s Day; 

4 (2) reaffirms its commitment to— 

5 (A) improve women’s access to quality 

6 health care, including HIV/AIDS prevention 

7 and treatment; 

8 (B) end and prevent violence against 

9 women, including the trafficking of women and 

10 girls worldwide, and ensure that the criminals 

11 who engage in these activities are brought to 

12 justice; 
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1 (C) end discrimination and increase the 

2 participation of women in decisionmaking posi3 tions in government and the private sector; 

4 (D) extend full economic opportunities to 

5 women, including access to microfinance and 

6 microenterprise; and 

7 (E) strengthen the role of women as 

8 agents of peace because women are among the 

9 best emissaries for easing religious, racial, and 

10 ethnic tensions, crossing cultural divides, and 

11 reducing violence in areas of war and conflict; 

12 and 

13 (3) encourages the people of the United States 

14 to observe ‘‘International Women’s Day’’ with ap15 propriate programs and activities. 

Æ