Women’s Day is celebrated worldwide every year on March 8. It is a special moment for women and men from all different backgrounds and cultures to band together to celebrate women and work towards gender parity and women’s rights. In Laos, it is an official holiday so that businesses and the government can recognize and honor the value and the achievements of women.
While women in Laos are legally entitled to the same opportunities as men, in reality women are underrepresented in both the private and public sectors. In addition, statistics verify that girls are under-educated compared to boys, with a lower basic literacy rate among women (63% for women, 83% for men). A woman’s typical household workload is also much higher than a man’s. In the household, the work to provide drinking water is primarily women’s work, a daily drudgery that traditionally includes searching for firewood, carrying and boiling the water, which means increased exposure to woodfire smoke. With a TerraClear water filter, this extra work for women is eliminated! Happy Women’s Day!!!
