The Importance of International Women's Day

By Jessica Hayes

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day! Take to social media to celebrate some famous women in our history, reflect on our upward journey to equality, agitate for more political change, donate to a charity focusing on women’s issues, raise awareness against bias, and continue to take action for equality: it’s a celebration!

This day is so important because it allows us all, women and men, not only to look forward in trying to establish new parity and equality between the genders; but also to acknowledge past fighters and the progress that’s already been made. This day is to reflect on our journey and the past, present, and future of our fight. We can use this day to educate others about women’s history and about how we each hold a responsibility to fight for the equality of all people.

We are not born sexist, we are not born racist, we are not born homophobic, etc. These things are learned. We need to use days like International Women’s Day to look inward and try to destroy these deep-rooted insensitivities and change our ways. Our lives shouldn’t depend on putting others down and spending our short time here on Earth oppressing people and hating people for things they cannot control. Instead, our lives should, and need to, depend on standing for the basic human rights of all. We need to protect Black, Asian, Muslim, Latinx, Indigenous, Disabled, Trans, Immigrant, Queer, Fat, Poor women, etc -- because if we aren’t fighting for all women, then we are fighting for no women.

Gender equality is also not a female issue, it’s a social and economic imperative, and it’s important to include men in this equation. International Women’s Day is not only for women - but also for men. It allows men to reflect on gender inequality and how their actions and attitudes may be adding to the problem. It also allows men to explore how days like IWD can affect the lives of all of the women in their lives and how they can work towards a better and more equal tomorrow. Perhaps it can be a time to read feminist literature and authors, to challenge their preconceived notions of how the world operates, and listen to stories by women about the woman experience. By taking responsibility to learn about feminism and to reflect, to understand its principles and to learn collectively, is a huge step for men to take in the journey towards gender equality.

Now, some people might ask, “Well, what about men? Why don’t we get a special day?” Well, there IS an International Men’s Day, which is celebrated on November 19. This day is designed to target issues like the high male suicide rate, male deaths through violence, better birth control options for men and promoting good male role models. However, the two International Days are extremely different. International Men’s Day is trying to deal with the consequences of gender roles and expectations; for example, society’s downplay of men’s childcare roles or their subjection to domestic violence. International Women’s Day, on the other hand, is an older battle that focuses on systemic, historical, all-encompassing disempowerment, from educational inequality to the gender pay gap to media representation. It’s the difference between particulars and generalities. Men have specific, real problems. Women have a specific, real “problem”: being women. So this day is to tackle why that is considered such a problem and to change the everyday conversation, which is normally directed by, dominated by, channelled through, and directed to men, to go through our history and celebrate the many triumphs of women and feminism, as well as it’s failures, and to determine what we could do better to make up for those failures (for example, making our feminism more intersectional).

All in all, today is about celebrating women, so be sure to go out and honour and acknowledge the strong, powerful women in your lives.