I find it interesting that March 8th is now “International Women’s Day” – not “International Women’s Rights Day”. This could be a real step forward, to the day when we don’t have “women’s” anything any more. The day when we see that we don’t need it, and that singling out one gender when we only have two is self-defeating and obvious. Imagine you had two children, a girl and a boy, would you only celebrate your daughter’s birthday?
The name may have lost its specific focus on rights now, but it does afford the opportunity to raise awareness about women who are great role models. Not all of them faced a struggle to earn their rights, yet they deserve that accolade, and many have interesting stories to share. I have no problem with them doing that all year round.
High (female) achievers aside, the fact remains that for millions of women, fighting for their rights is a daily battle. I love and respect these women every day. Here are the posters I made to celebrate just a few of them, finding my inspiration in the original meaning of March 8th as their day to get recognition, and our day to give it.
And here are some closing thoughts as we bid farewell to that one day of the year dedicated to my gender
I think we can only have equality if there is also one day of every year devoted to equal rights for men – if men being denied their rights are a minority group, that only strengthens my conviction.
I wish we lived in a world where such events were not deemed necessary – I would especially not miss the ghastly rhetoric and those patronising videos featuring “songs by international artists”.
Today, as in previous years, I have read too many well-intentioned posts praising women for their physical or personal charms, as if this was a day set aside for chauvinists to thank women for submitting to being objectified by them throughout the year.
I believe, if mothers raise their children as equals,
and if teachers educate students as equals,
and never yield, relent or make excuses,
and stop cheering for every right “won” as if it was not a right at all, but a gift,
then eventually, gender equality would become a mundane reality.
Related articles
- Happy International Women’s Day (femmetotale.wordpress.com)
- Egyptian women demand rights on International Women’s Day (dailynewsegypt.com)
- International Women’s Day (bluemountain.com)
- International Women’s Day Isn’t Only For Women (rachelgoble.com)
- Why Do We Need an International Women’s Day? (mombloggersforsocialgood.com)
- International Women’s Day: political rights around the world mapped (guardian.co.uk)
- Australia’s role in global gender equality – ABC Online (blog) (blogs.abc.net.au)
- Steve Beckow – Different But Equal: Becoming an Enlightened Society (aquariusparadigm.com)
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