IV 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 148 
Supporting the goals of International Women’s Day. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 8, 2011 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY (for herself, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. FUDGE, Mrs. 
DAVIS of California, Mr. STARK, Ms. NORTON, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE 
JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. CARNAHAN, 
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. HINCHEY, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. MAT-
SUI, Mrs. MALONEY, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. MOORE, Mr. LEWIS 
of Georgia, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Ms. 
WOOLSEY, Mr. FARR, Mr. BACA, Ms. DELAURO, Mrs. LOWEY, Ms. LO-
RETTA SANCHEZ of California, Mr. MORAN, Ms. BORDALLO, Ms. ED-
WARDS, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Ms. RICHARDSON, Mrs. CAPPS, 
Mr. SIRES, Mr. HINOJOSA, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. COHEN, Mr. 
GUTIERREZ, Mr. ISRAEL, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. BASS of California, 
Ms. SUTTON, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. SMITH of Washington, 
Mr. YARMUTH, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut, and Mr. 
DEUTCH) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the 
Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Supporting the goals of International Women’s Day. 
Whereas there are over 3,000,000,000 women in the world, 
representing 51 percent of the world’s population; 
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•HRES 148 IH 
Whereas women continue to play the prominent role in caring 
for families within the home as well as serving as eco-
nomic earners; 
Whereas women worldwide are participating in the world of 
diplomacy and politics, contributing to the growth of 
economies, and improving the quality of the lives of their 
families, communities, and nations; 
Whereas women leaders have recently made significant 
strides, including the 2010 election of Dilma Rousseff as 
the first female President of Brazil, the 2009 election of 
Johanna Sigurdardottir as the first female Prime Min-
ister of Iceland, the 2007 election of Congresswoman 
Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the United 
States House of Representatives, the 2006 election of 
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as the President of Liberia, the 
first female President in Africa’s history, and the 2005 
election of Angela Merkel as the first female Chancellor 
of Germany, who also served as the second woman to 
chair a G8 summit in 2007; 
Whereas women account for 80 percent of the world’s 
70,000,000 micro-borrowers, and 75 percent of the 
28,000 United States loans supporting small businesses 
in Afghanistan are given to women; 
Whereas there are more than 200,000,000 women entre-
preneurs worldwide and 15 women are chief executive of-
ficers of Fortune 500 companies; 
Whereas despite tremendous gains over the past 20 years, 
women still face political and economic obstacles, struggle 
for basic rights, face the threat of discrimination, and are 
targets of violence all over the world; 
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•HRES 148 IH 
Whereas worldwide, women remain vastly underrepresented 
in national and local assemblies, accounting on average 
for less than 20 percent of the seats in parliament; 
Whereas women work two-thirds of the world’s working 
hours, produce half of the world’s food, yet earn just one- 
third of the world’s income and own less than 2 percent 
of the world’s land; 
Whereas women invest 80 percent of their incomes in their 
families and in their communities; 
Whereas 70 percent of the 1,300,000,000 people living in 
poverty around the world are women and children; 
Whereas 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 world-
wide are girls, and girls are less likely to complete school 
than boys according to the United States Agency for 
International Development; 
Whereas worldwide, women account for more than half of the 
more than 33,000,000 adults living with HIV/AIDS and 
HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death and disease 
among women of reproductive age; 
Whereas globally, nearly 1,000 women die, everyday, from 
childbirth and pregnancy related causes; 
Whereas domestic violence causes more deaths and disabil-
ities among women between the ages of 15 and 44 than 
cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined; 
Whereas around the world, at least 1 out of every 3 women 
and girls has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in 
some other way in her lifetime; 
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•HRES 148 IH 
Whereas worldwide, 140,000,000 girls and young women 
have been subjected to female genital mutilation, and it 
is estimated that 3,000,000 girls are at risk of being sub-
jected to this practice; 
Whereas illegal trafficking in women and children for forced 
labor, domestic servitude, or sexual exploitation involves 
between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 women and children 
each year, of whom 50,000 are transported into the 
United States, according to the Congressional Research 
Service and the Department of State; 
Whereas 75 percent of the world’s 43,000,000 forcibly dis-
placed individuals are women and children; 
Whereas in times and places of conflict and war, women and 
girls continue to be the focus of extreme violence and in-
timidation and face tremendous obstacles to legal re-
course and justice; 
Whereas March 8 has become known as International Wom-
en’s Day for the last century, and is a day on which peo-
ple, often divided by ethnicity, language, culture, and in-
come, come together to celebrate a common struggle for 
women’s equality, justice, and peace; and 
Whereas the people of the United States should be encour-
aged to participate in International Women’s Day: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports the goals of International Women’s 
Day; 
(2) recognizes and honors the women in the 
United States and in other countries who have 
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•HRES 148 IH 
fought and continue to struggle for equality in the 
face of adversity; 
(3) reaffirms its commitment to ending dis-
crimination and violence against women and girls, to 
ensuring the safety and welfare of women and girls, 
and to pursuing policies that guarantee the basic 
human rights of women and girls both in the United 
States and in other countries; and 
(4) encourages the President to— 
(A) reaffirm his commitment to pursue 
policies to protect fundamental human rights 
and civil liberties, particularly those of women 
and girls; and 
(B) issue a proclamation calling upon the 
people of the United States to observe Inter-
national Women’s Day with appropriate pro-
grams and activities. 
Æ 
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