Why do women have a day in the calendar to celebrate them? Isn’t this potentially seen as positive discrimination against men? I heard this question in many forms over the years, but the essence is the same: Isn’t this day a privilege for women?
Well, the short answer is no.
This celebration has its origins in the movement for equal rights meant to introduce the vote for women at the beginning of last century. More than 100 years after, this is still a thing in countries like Saudi Arabia where women won this fundamental right only in 2015!
Nowadays, the concept extends in all areas where action is needed to encourage and empower women to create a truly equal society.
Even though a lot has been done to achieve gender equality, a lot more is needed to fight (un)conscious bias and to help women to reach their potential in both the professional world and society.
According to United Nations:
– The majority of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor are women
– 2/3 of illiterate population in the world are women
– There is still a pay gap between how much women and men earn for the same work
– Less than 20% of the landholders across the globe are women
– Only 23% of all national parliamentarians are women
– Women continue to be victims of violence including rape and domestic violence which makes them one of the most vulnerable categories of the society
So, having a day in the year that acknowledges the efforts women made and continue to make to improve these statistics, it’s not a privilege, but rather a necessity.
Cheers to you, lovely ladies and to your constant thrive and support for each other to create a more equal and kinder world to live in! <3
As Deborah H. Gruenfeld, social psychologist and Leadership professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business said, “We need to lookout for one another, work together and act more like a coalition. As individuals, we have relatively low levels of power. Working together, we are 50% of the population and therefore have real power”.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Xtina
