International Women's Day: How it's celebrated around the globe

Women are invited to meet on the Dr. Arnaldo Avenue Bridge in Sao Paola, Brazil, this year, as part of a global effort, fittingly called “Join Me on the Bridge,” to bring women and men together to call for peace and equality.  Last year, 75,000 people stood on 464 bridges in 70 countries, according to the organizer’s website.
Almost 60 percent of high-skilled jobs in Jamaica are held by women, according to the British newspaper The Independent on Sunday. This includes positions in politics and business, and makes Jamaica home of the highest women-to-high-skilled-job ratio. One women’s rights activist plans to hand out cards and candy to women in the workplace in Jamaica to honor IWD and women’s achievements in her country.
In Mexico – where scores of journalists have been killed since 1992, and five journalists were murdered in 2011 alone, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists – an international literary organization is leading an effort to raise awareness of the risks women writers face in the region.  Efforts include writing Mexican authorities and assembling obituaries of female writers who were killed in Mexico.
Progress Watch:
+ Some 53 percent of women in the region are active labor force participants.
– The gender pay gap in Latin America and the Caribbean, largely in synch with global trends, results in females receiving  up to 40 percent less in compensation than males.