International Women’s Day was last weekend. A day of celebration and recognition for women’s achievements and hardships around the world. However, I couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t feel much like a celebration, never mind an international holiday.
Instead, it was a day where the lack of progress for women’s rights seemed especially obvious. I didn’t feel happy and empowered, I just felt angry.
I recently saw a statistic showing that 47 per cent of Britons say that women’s equality has gone “too far,” with 6 in 10 men of my generation agreeing. This is illogical: how can equality go “too far.” when the very most it can do is make things equal?
Secondly, I found this statistic frankly terrifying. I cannot comprehend how my rights may have gone too far when I still cannot walk home alone at night, and must fight to make my voice heard in any academic or social setting.
Following this concerning figure, and my reflections on IWD, I think it is important to remind ourselves about the real struggles that women face every day: According to the World Bank and WHO2, over 2.7 billion women still don’t have the same work opportunities as men; less than 15 per cent of landowners in the world are women; and 71 per cent of all human trafficking involves women and girls. These statistics come with more news of the Taliban increasingly banning education for women, and the US clamping down on abortion.
If these statistics seem too inconsequential here in the UK, let me bring it a little closer to home: Women in the UK currently retire with £100K less than men; the gender pay gap is at 13.1 per cent; 1 in 4 British women experience domestic abuse in their lifetimes, and women in Scotland have no right to abortion – it is still technically a crime, with certain “defences” built into statute.
While researching about our constant battle for gender parity, the idea that men are now at a disadvantage confounds me. Furthermore, people seem to care much more about men’s rights on the one day of the year dedicated to celebrating women: google searches for “International Men’s Day” spike every year on IWD. Why might this be? Because no one cares about the holiday until it is useful to detract from women.
Men currently feel that women’s rights have gone too far because, from the position, of absolute privilege that they have been raised to expect, equality can feel a lot like oppression. We have built a system where being a woman is outside the norm; our right just to exist is probed and questioned at every possible opportunity.
We have a long way to go before our rights are equal. One day of the year will never be enough to make a difference. We must fight to assert our right to a valuable and fulfilled life every single day, and so we will.
“Poster International Socialist Women’s day 1951” by marza is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
