It's international women's day. The 48th one to be exact - and the "theme" this year unsurprisingly is #embraceequity. Why is it that 48 years on we are still crying to be seen and heard as independent and equal contributers?! The first international women's day (as we know it today) was commemorated on 8 March 1975. It took 21 years for a "theme" to come about with the first theme being published in 1996 and it read : "Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future". It has been 27 years since then and we are still in a place where:
Women die at the hands of men.
Girls are blamed for atrocities happening to them because of how they are dressed
Female victims are still tasked to PROVE that a crime was committed
I did a blitz search before sitting down to write this... did you know: According to the 2021 edition of Women, Business, and the Law, a report published annually by the World Bank, there are 88 countries that prevent women from working in certain jobs on the basis of gender. The World Bank also notes that there are:
49 countries without laws against domestic violence
45 countries without legislation against sexual harassment
112 countries where marital rape is not a crime.
Furthermore:
1 in 3 women will face gender based violence in her lifetime
women perform 2.6 times more unpaid domestic and care work than men
women own less than 20% of the world's land
despite attempts to decrease pay disparities by 2021 there was still an 18% gap in wages in the USA
women are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with mood disorders and the rate of personality disorder diagnosis is even more profound, compared to male counterparts.
Just 1 in 3 managers or supervisors is a woman.
Over 1.2 billion women and girls live in places where safe access to abortion is restricted
Women's day is not new. Technically it was celebrated for 100 years in 2011. I've been kind in acknowledging only 48 years of "International Recognition". Sure some women get 'a day of it' if they work an an employer who is even remotely aware. Sometimes there's a "Happy International Women's Day" coming at you, others are showered with flowers and gifts. This is not what we want! It is tokenistic. Maybe well-intentioned but tokenistic. Here is what women want not only today but EVERY DAY!!
Respect. Respect at home, respect in the workplace, respect in relationships, respect outside of these places and respect in social circles.
Equality. We want to be considered for all the opportunities, and have all the resources our male counterparts have.
Validation. We want to be validated for our contributions. Yes equal salaries will definitely help, but so will actually respecting our professional authority, and our opinions and input. Women's ideas often get dismissed without even a second of consideration whereas male counterparts in the workplace are lathered in appreciation and praised for their efforts and contributions - GLOBALLY!
Autonomy. We want to have a right to say yes or no to anything that impacts our lives, our well-being and our bodies.
SAFETY. We want to to be able to walk around at night, dusk or dawn - ALONE if we want and know that we are SAFE. We want to be able to disagree with a partner without being harmed physically or psychologically. We want to be able to go somewhere and talk to someone without having to be cross-examined.
Freedom. In all it's glory.
An article I read claimed it could take up to 286 years for equality to fully exist. I personally think that article is wrong. We've been at this well over 100 years... and still have made little progress. All is not lost... we can prove that article wrong in another way.... Let's prove that article wrong by ALL taking responsibility for the treatment of women and girls, globally. To the men out there.... make it your individual responsibility to challenge inequality and stereotypes - do it for your sons, and daughters, you mothers, partners and sisters and most of all - do it for yourself to become the man who can look at the guy in the mirror and say "It is not that this in not my problem, but I choose to make it my responsibility" For the women reading this let's stand together! Let's stand up and say "This is not okay we want better, and our daughters deserve better". Together let's shape real equity and let's start moving away from tokenism towards a culture of purpose and meaning.
留言