March 8 is International Women’s Day

By theundiedrawer, March 6, 2014

International Women’s Day takes place on March 8th, every year, and dates back to the early 1900s.  This is a day to celebrate and promote gender equality, women’s rights, and the many achievements and successes of women from all around the world. It is important, in my opinion, to both celebrate the achievements and progress that women have made around the world, but also to remain aware that there is still A LOT of work to be done.

Having said that, Marie Claire Australia is currently running a campaign to promote International Women’s Day, but also to remind women around the world that we should still be striving to better our situations and to seek true equality. Watch the full video below and prepare to get all frustrated and pissed off:

Now, keep in mind, this video focusses mostly on issues and women based out of Australia, but the same issues and gender-shaming of women occurs all around the world, all of the time.  Glass ceilings exist.  Rape culture exists – we only have to look at the Duke University pornstar, or the recent buzz about college fraternities explicitly supporting rape culture and then falling back on the excuse that they are just ‘kidding around.’

The #demandbetter hashtag is being proliferated by Marie Claire Australia to raise awareness about these issues in Australia through social media.  Spreading the word across the internet is a good start, but theres so much more that we could and should be doing!  Use the rest of this week and weekend to confront your family and friends – find out what they truly think about women, gender equality and gender politics.  It’s easy to overlook your close relationships and friends as having an undertone of inequality and anti-feminism.  It can be a really difficult conversation to have, I know, but it’s an important one, and there’s no better time to broach the subject.

Let’s use International Women’s Day as a platform both of celebration, but also of sober realization.  There’s still so much work to be done, and it starts with you and I.

Categories: News