A couple of days back, I asked a group of persons onchain about what they thought about this year's International Women's Day celebration. Whether or not it has become performative or if the celebration is indeed creating long lasting impact.
I went back to the post some minutes ago and, as expected, there were a couple of opinions which I did appreciate because I believe it's a great thing to see things from the perspective of others. However, I did realize how we, as a collective, do not really understand how women's issues have become less of a concern to society.
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International Women's Day is primarily a day set aside to globally celebrate women's achievements but most importantly, identify our present challenges, create more awareness around them and also focus the greater attention on women's rights and gender inequality issues. But everyone can see that every International Women's Day for the past five years has focused majorly on celebrating the strength of a woman while neglecting the most important cause we're all fighting for.
The official theme for this year's IWD is "Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls." However, "Give to Gain," which was the marketing campaign theme, garnered more traction and everyone went with that. Mind you, this campaign theme was from a marketing agency in London. Lots of people never bothered to ask what "Give to Gain" means or even realized how vague it was for creating awareness. But as a woman deeply involved in the politics of our existence, you get to realize how the core purpose of IWD was lost in that theme.
The phrase is unnecessarily ambiguous. It almost incentivizes society to give rights, opportunities and justice to women. But we must understand that women's equality should not be something to gain from. In fact, it should be recognized as a non negotiable. So the fact that this theme trended more than the official theme from the UN might be proof that the celebration of IWD has lost its taste. More proof is the fact that it has no call to action. A good theme must have a call to action because of the lived experiences of women and our genuine interest in creating awareness.
Image from unsplash
Last year, we recorded many cases of femicide in Nigeria. Many corporations still treated women like lesser beings. All over the world, women's rights were being trampled upon. In healthcare, female patients are still being harassed and their concerns about reproductive issues like endometriosis and PCOS are still largely dismissed by male doctors. Legally, women are still more disadvantaged than men. The statistics are right there on the Internet. But as usual, every corporate organization comes online to celebrate this day. It is performance and that has no place in IWD.
For anyone reading this, I hope you're not discouraged about the turn out of events in respect to IWD. If you've not been aware of these issues women face on a large scale, I hope you begin to see the light and let your curiosity lead you to learning more about them. Most importantly, please fight for the girls and women around you. Hold spaces for them. Advocate for their rights and safety. Speak up for them to get justice. Join us in creating awareness about all these harmful practices women and girls are subjected to. Take positive action if you're in a position of power to help any girl or woman feel rightly seen and heard. It is our collective responsibility to do right by women, and I hope there comes a time when we do not have to mourn what IWD has become, but rather celebrate the giant strides it has made in society for women.
This blog post is a response to the Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt, Day 3043: Call To Action.
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