What is International Womens Day Really About?

I don’t want to say Happy International Women’s Day like it’s an anniversary to celebrate yet another year around the sun. That is not to say we should not celebrate though … but we are not celebrating the day. We are celebrating women and progress toward our goal of achieving equal treatment for women!

And why do we need to do that?

It’s because women are still too often treated with disrespect, with abuse, with put downs and are not given the same rights and opportunities as men are … all around the world. This is still ongoing today to varying degrees in different countries..

This day was first initiated by the Suffragettes in the early 1800s to focus on improving conditions for working women.

In the early 1900’s there was great unrest and cirtical debate about the oppression of women, the inequalty of working conditions for women and the right to vote. Women started celebrating IWD in the US on the last day of February at this time.

It was first celebrated in Europe in 1911 on the 19 March after a decision the previous year at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen.

In 1975 International Women’s Day was marked for the first time by the United Nations. Then in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

Since then, the recognition of IWD and the need for change has expanded and increased around the world, with different themes selected for each year. But even on the theme there discrepancy this year with 2 different themes being promoted:

• the UN’s theme is ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress’
• the website internationalwomensday.com is promoting a different theme of ‘Inspire Inclusion’

Not sure which of these is the correct one but I will go with the UN theme as I cannot work out who the owner of the website is, even though I could only find a banner photo for the inspire inclusion one 😉.

After the 1800’s the push for better working conditions and women’s rights evolved into a feminist movement with the intent of gaining equality for women – equal pay, equal treatment, equal opportunities. That is still what this day and real feminism are about … and still what we still need change to achieve.

So it is not just about celebrating women for being women … although we can do that too. It is about standing together to make this world a better place and supporting each other to be all that we can be in our lives to fulfill our potential.  That is why communities for women are so important …  women supporting women in a community only women can create together.

Let’s not bring each other down. That is not the culture we want and need to live in. We need to build each other up because this world is still patriarchally dominated and we need to overcome that.

Each and every one of us has an incredible story of challenges, pain experienced, joy shared and success celebrated. I invite you to celebrate your own successes today as well as do something to build another woman up.

We celebrate that we have come so far since the Suffragettes and show our gratitude for all the women before us who have taken a stand to achieve the rights we have today, enabling so many of us to do what we want, when we want.

We celebrate that we can achieve what we set our mind to.

We celebrate that we are strong and we are supporting each other. It’s not a competition – it’s a cooperation to help each other achieve because then we all have success.

We celebrate what we have endured, recovered from and overcome in our lives so far.

We celebrate what we will create in the rest of our lives.

So let’s celebrate each other in joy and love today with a great big “You go girlfriend!!”

Today is the day to stand in our power and say I am woman, hear me roar … with my women community around me.

It’s International Women’s Day.

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