International Women’s Day 2021

“A Personal Perspective on “Choose to Challenge”.

There is no universality in thinking patterns generally and so the differences between persons of all gender will be continually stark. These differences, however, should not create any form of inequality because physiologically speaking, once everything is stripped back, there is no difference. All we are can be aptly termed as walking cucumbers albeit anxious ones. That sadly is not the reality, inequality has always been a problem both subtly and otherwise; and has led to movements of varying nature to combat the ugliness that is inequality, particularly as it affects women. While Clara Zetkin is credited with the founding of International Women’s Day in 1910, the idea was certainly formed before that when in 1908, 15,000 women marched in New York to demand better pay, shorter working hours and voting rights. It has since been celebrated yearly and marks the strides women have taken in politics, society and economics as well as protesting and raising awareness on inequality.

The celebration of international women’s day brings motley of tightly balanced ideals. It should and should not be celebrated at the same time. It should be celebrated because it took the sheer strength and will of women to let the world know that women should (and rightly so) have equal rights to men. Records abound of women who fought hard and gave their lives to the cause that is women’s rights. It should be celebrated because in as much as parts of the world recognise and afford women equal rights, other parts of the world do not and must be educated to do just so. It should NOT be celebrated because, in this day and age, we should not need a reminder that women have equal rights to men and that is all there is to it.

It must be said that even in parts of the world where women’s rights are recognised, this recognition is not always absolute. It would seem that the rights afforded to women, while supposedly equal to men are conditional. Take the highly controversial abortion rights, for example, it is legal in many parts of Europe with some barriers. Whereas in other countries, abortion is illegal under any circumstance and completely takes away women’s right to choose what to do with their bodies. While other associated limitations are best left to medical professionals, the bottom line remains that a woman is not afforded the right to do as she sees fit. Other examples are peculiar to certain parts of the world like sexuality, choice of partner(s), assertiveness, financial independence, body shape, skin colour etc. These might be a given for some but not all, hence the need to carry on fighting for women’s rights. In line with this fight, IWD’s theme for this year is #choosetochallenge.

#Choosetochallenge is apt because the movement towards equal rights has always been fraught with varying issues that seemed and still seem insurmountable. There are also additional factors (Culture, traditions etc) that are significant add ons to these challenges but that has not stopped the fight for equal rights. If anything, it has proved that insurmountable challenges can be overcome, even at snail speed and even if it means educating the world one person at a time. The fight does not end on March 8th but continues and the theme makes it accomplishable, choosing to challenge at every opportunity. Challenge that behaviour, challenge that reckless sentence, challenge bias, challenge discrimination, challenge stereotypes. The reason the fight carries on is because of hope, hope that one day the rights that we demand would become a reality. Maybe not in our time or in our children’s time but definitely in our grandchildren’s time if our children carry on pushing the movement forward, teaching one person, one family, one community, one village, one country, one continent at a time. So, what/who/where would you choose to challenge?

Disclaimer

This article is a personal view, not off Uplanit. As a company, we believe in freedom of expression within reasonable limits.

All photographs were sourced from unsplash.

See you next week.

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