March 8, 2018 is International Women's Day. This day, held for over a century now, celebrates women and calls to action every woman and man around the globe to stand up and fight for the progress, change, inclusiveness, and gender parity (equality) for women around the globe. According to organizers, IWD does not focus on one person, one country, one group, or one organization, but rather the collective fight and achievements of women around the globe.
In 2018 there are still women around the world who are not able to get an education, who are still being sold as slaves, who are still being forced to marry men they don't want to, who are still being undervalued and underpaid in the workplace, women still working in offices where sexual harassment goes unchecked, women who are still not being hired because of their gender, women who do not get maternity leave, women who do not have access to prophylactics or birth control, women who do not get the right to choose what happens to their bodies in the cases of rape/incest, and women who are getting acid splashed in their faces for supposedly dishonoring their families.
If you wonder why women "need a day," it's all of the above and more. IWD puts these issues on the front page and reminds women and men that these things are still happening and that to stand up for yourself, means you also help stand up for those who are too afraid or don't have the ability to fight for themselves. It has been proven time and time again, that one person can create change, but without support and people behind the cause, these issues can often remain unchecked. Together women have a stronger voice then when they are alone.
If you don't believe there is power is standing together, you have only to think back to October 2017, where the viral #MeToo began. In a matter of a few weeks and months, women who had been silent or silenced began to come forward in droves together to stand up against things like rape, harassment, an unequal pay. Some of the very women who had come forward before were laughed off, or ignored, or called liars, or had their careers or lives ruined for speaking up as individuals, but together with the support of both women and men, they were not going to allow themselves or other women to endure being silenced by a system that often made them feel like they were in the wrong for having suffered such abuses.
This years theme for International Women's Day and hashtag is #PressForProgress. There is an international call to action for women to dedicate themselves to one or all of the following throughout the year:
1. Maintain a gender parity mindset
2. Challenge stereotypes and bias
3. Forge positive visibility of women
4. Influence others beliefs and actions
5. Celebrate women's achievements
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/PressforProgress
International Women's Day serves as a yearly reminder to women that if you're not going to fight for yourselves or celebrate yourselves, then who will? Change starts with you and with all the women in your life. So on March 8, and every other day beyond that, challenge yourself and the women around you to be part of solution instead of the problem. Write to your politicians, run for office, be the first in your field, protest inequality, stand up for women getting a proper education, fight for the right to decide what you do with your own body, don't hide your achievements, and support the women in your life so that there can be progress in the fight for equality and women's rights.
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