International Women's Day 2014

Today is International Women's Day. On most normal days, I usually come across or notice multiple articles about women's issues but surprisingly, I've seen very few of them today. I have, however, seen several people wish "Happy International Women's Day" to others.

This is all very well, but International Women's Day exists to recognise the progress of women's rights and women's achievements, and to raise awareness about women's issues and how we can solve them. While I am glad to see people mention the day and cause others to notice it, I'm not overly keen on randomly greeting people with it, as I feel it trivialises its importance and reduces it to the level of people wishing one another a Happy Halloween.

International Women's Day is also meant to be a celebration of women, but it's not meant to be a day when we say "Yay, women!" and then go back to sleep. There are 364 (sometimes 365) other days of the year in which we have to continue to advance women's rights and stop certain people and groups from reversing all the gains women have made in the past century. Again, I'm glad to see people mention the day and help raise its awareness, but don't leave it at that.

As for me, my family and I had a discussion about International Women's Day at the dinner table this evening. This is significant because it's the first time I can recall us ever talking about it; unfortunately, on past 8ths of March (and other days, sadly) the subject did not come up in conversation, although to be fair, we weren't even aware it existed until about the past three years, so yes, the awareness efforts do need to continue. I'm glad that we talked about it this year.

Regardless, I hope that you have had a Happy International Women's Day and have contributed somehow - even in a tiny manner - to improving women's lives.