How to say you don’t understand the concept of International Women’s Day without saying you don’t understand the concept of International Women’s Day? How many examples have you already seen that completely miss the point?
So why do we have a day for women you ask? And in the interest of equality, when’s International Men’s day? Well actually it’s on 19th November, but that’s beside the point. The point is the peak of internet searches asking this question is always International Women’s Day every year, interestingly there isn’t a spike of searches for International Women’s Day on 19th November. M
International Women’s Day is misinterpreted as a bit of a marketing opportunity for businesses, an easy way to look good, a slogan – Happy International Women’s Day, as if it’s Christmas. But it actually has a point to highlight what women have achieved, yes, but also the inequalities that still exist.
On the face of it women in the uk are equal in terms of right, but this is all still pretty new. We’ve had the vote for less than 100 years, it’s been less than 50 years that women have been able to take out a credit card, until the 1970s women were routinely unable to open bank accounts in their own name or get a mortgage.
Even with this so called equality women are routinely paid less than their male counterparts, expected to take on more of the household and family responsibilities alongside work and are less likely to hold senior roles. Despite making up close to half the workforce this is not reflected in most board rooms and in 2013 less than 22% of parliament was women, meaning we are consistently under represented in the decision making process at almost every level. It’s been estimated full equality at the current rate is likely to be some three centuries away.
And though in the UK we are one of the more equal societies, remember this is fragile. This progress is less than a century old and that sort of change can be changed again quite easily. Think about how abortion rights have been eroded in the USA, one of the most powerful countries in the world. Or Afghanistan, where women overnight were stopped from leaving the house alone, wearing what they want or going to school. Away from the UK, there are millions of women who do not have equality or anything close to what we have here.
This is why the day matters and why it shouldn’t be reduced to a slogan or quote or gimmick. It should be a day to ignite uncomfortable conversations, make people think, raise awareness, because for progress to continue to be made we need to know what is needed and why.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 