Sure, here are some major news highlights related to women's development or gender-sensitive

topics for the month of March:

1. International Women's Day Celebrations:

” Various countries around the world celebrated International Women's Day on March 8th,
highlighting the achievements and struggles of women globally

2. Women’s representation in politics low despite talks:

“Even while women have made space and excelled in various sectors, the rise of female
leaders in politics has remained historically low, despite the calls for reservation and
empowerment that have been ongoing for a decade.”
REGION PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION ON
WOMEN (IN PERCENTAGE)
AMERICAS 34.6
SUB- SAHARAN AFRICA 26.0
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 16.8
EUROP 31.1
ASIA 20.9
PACIFIC 20.9

3. March 12 is Equal Pay Day, highlights wage gap between women and men:
“In the United States, March 12 is Equal Pay Day, a symbolic date that represents the
number of days women must work in the current year to earn the same amount of money as
men did the previous year.
To put it another way, a woman must work for around 14.5 months to earn 12 months of a
man's median wage.
According to the National Committee on Pay Equity and the Equal Pay Today campaign,
women are paid 84 cents for every $1 earned by men.
The actual salary disparity between men and women will increase or reduce based on age,
education level, occupation and tenure, race, and ethnicity.”

4. Relationships between violence against women and violence against children:

“The links between violence against women and violence against children are becoming
increasingly evident on a global scale. There is currently little information on the
connections between various types of violence against women and violence against children,
however there are connections between intimate partner abuse of women and abuse of
children by parents or other caregivers. Violence against women by (male) intimate
partners, as well as violence against children by parents or caregivers, is pervasive around
the world.”

5. Thailand has enacted a "equality" bill and plans to legalize same-sex unions.”
“Thailand is become the first nation in Southeast Asia to guarantee gay and lesbian couples'
rights to marriage after lawmakers approved a law recognizing same-sex unions.
In a final reading on Wednesday, the 500-member House of Representatives decided to
approve the so-called "marriage equality" law, which is actually a change to the Civil and
 Commercial Code. After more than three hours of debate, 400 MPs supported the
legislation, 10 opposed it, and five members abstained or did not cast a ballot.
The bill will now be reviewed by the upper house Senate on April 2. After that, the King will
sign it and it will appear in the Royal Gazette.
Danuphorn Punnakanta, the leader of a group of parliamentarians that guided the initiative,
stated that it "will not take away any rights from men and women and instead extend the
rights to LGBTQ groups."
In Thailand, LGBTQ campaigners have been fighting for the same rights to marry as
heterosexual couples for more than ten years. Since 2015, Thai legislation have shielded
LGBTQ individuals from the majority of forms of discrimination; nonetheless, efforts to
formally establish marriage rights have stagnated.
The legislation stating that a man and a woman can only be married was maintained by the
Constitutional Court in 2021. A bill to legalize same-sex civil partnerships was not able to
pass the legislature in time for the elections last year.”

6. A 14-year-old girl in Mumbai commits suicide due to stress following her first menstruation:
“After enduring an unpleasant first menstrual period, a 14-year-old girl is said to have
committed suicide in Mumbai's Malwani neighborhood on Tuesday night.
Based on the police report, the adolescent's extreme action was motivated by stress
stemming from her lack of knowledge and incorrect information about the menstrual cycle.
The girl and her family resided in Lakshmi Chawls, Malwani.
The youngster allegedly killed herself on Tuesday night when no one else was home,
according to the police. She was taken to Kandivali's general public hospital by her family
and neighbors as soon as they heard about the tragedy. The hospital's doctors pronounced
her dead.
According to her relatives, the child experienced a traumatic event just after her first
menstrual period, which occurred during the preliminary investigation. She was mentally
stressed and upset by it. Thus, it's possible that she took her own life due to it," a police
officer stated.
According to a social activist, the experience of menstruation for young girls can be more
difficult at times due to inconsistency in access to menstrual health education.
Change won't happen unless we have normal conversations about it with people of both
genders.”