For 2023, the theme of International Women’s Day (IWD) is #EmbraceEquity to bolster the conversation: Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. #IWD23
That may sound obtuse at first–isn’t equal opportunity a great thing? Yes, yes it is! And also, it isn’t. Equality is fantastic when everyone has the same needs, abilities and backgrounds, but as with many things that are great on paper, in practice it still leaves out the most vulnerable and marginalized.
Don’t despair–making equal opportunities is a fantastic step that our society has been making. And now it’s time to continue to rise above with the next natural step in our cultural evolution and hoist ourselves from equality up to the next stair of equity.
In this article:
- My First Experience: Discovering “Women’s Appreciation” Day… from a man ?
- Why Equal Opportunities aren’t Enough
- A Global Celebration
- Now You
My First Experience: Discovering “Women’s Appreciation” Day… from a man ?
I was 27, and it was a crisp March morning in the outskirts of Oslo, Norway. The sun was hitting the earth at that special angle where the world starts to sing of beautiful colors, casting crisp shadows and bright beams all around. The snow in the windowsill next to me sparkled in welcome as I rubbed my eyes. Blinking awake, I had just heard a gentle knock at my door where I was staying at that point in my Scandinavian adventure.
“Come in?” I said, tentatively. As the door opened, I saw that the visitor was Ketil, my CouchSurfing native host, who had awoken me. It wasn’t who so much as what that surprised me, for in his hands was a tray filled with delicious smelling food, orange juice, and most surprising of all, a single red rose and a tealight candle.
What’s this? I was certainly confused… was my host trying to woo me? Since I was starting to get sick, was he simply trying to make me feel more comfortable? I had to ask. It’s been 8 years so my memory is missing details, but Ketil told me something along the lines of,
“Today is for you. It’s Women’s Day, and it is a day for celebrating women.”
“So when is Men’s Day?” I asked naively, thinking this celebration must be some Norwegian thing. He laughed.
“No such thing, for every day is men’s day.”
And that’s how I learned about International Women’s Day and History Month. The fact that I was well into womanhood and had to travel to the completely opposite side of the globe from the USA to even hear about International Women’s Day, coming from a man, both impressed me with Ketil as well as made me take a look at my home country and upbringing with suspicion. Why was this THE FIRST I’d heard of it? I didn’t understand its importance, nor was I even taught of its existence.
What I wonder now: are children still missing out on important messages like this today? Looking at the state of affairs and the misogyny that continues to run rampant as well as subconsciously bubble under the surface of lesser offenders, I think it’s so.
Women’s History isn’t something simply perfunctory to recognize to coddle women. It’s important for every human, for doing a disservice like this to almost half the population may seemingly elevate the others, but it is a false sense of superiority that eats away at our humanity, causes more rifts, and stunts the growth of our species. International Women’s Day and History Month is all about righting the ship so that all may sail forward instead of a select few sitting up on the overturned hull while watching the rest flounder.
Thank you, Ketil K. You opened my eyes to a history, my history, that I never knew about.
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Why Equal Opportunities aren’t Enough
Men’s Day?
Digging into that discretion, why isn’t there a “Men’s Day”? Well, there actually is. International Men’s Day is November 19th, although it isn’t as official and is much newer (1991 vs IWD’s 1911). According to Wikipedia, it’s starting to take traction and leans into six pillars of purpose:
- To promote positive male role models: not just movie stars and sports men but everyday, working-class men who are living decent, honest lives.
- To celebrate men’s positive contributions to society, community, family, marriage, child care, and the environment.
- To focus on men’s health and wellbeing: social, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
- To highlight discrimination against men in areas of social services, social attitudes and expectations, and law.
- To improve gender relations and promote gender equality.
- To create a safer, better world, where people can be safe and grow to reach their full potential.
These are noble aims to be sure, and the world does need a wholesome, man-led culture for younger generations to grow healthily into. I hope to see this effort continue well into the future to help resuscitate non-toxic masculinity and help with shaping boys into their best selves.
Women’s Day!
This virtuous undertaking may make you question why it isn’t celebrated the same way that IWD is. Sofia Guevara lines it out for us in her article at PowerToFly, a women-founded and -led conglomerate aimed “to fast-track economic equity by upskilling and connecting underrepresented talent to roles in highly visible sectors.” Here are some highlights of why it’s important to celebrate IWD:
- Because women literally have to change our voices to sound more like men in order to be heard.
- Because technology that is designed by and for men can end up having dire consequences for women.
- Because women-dominated professions, like teaching and nursing, are perpetually undervalued and underpaid.
- Girls are more likely than boys not to go to school and never to learn to read.
- Across the world, women do three times as much unpaid care work as men do.
- 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence, according to estimates from the World Health Organization.
- In some areas, the preference for sons over daughters is still so strong that female foeticide and infanticide are considered viable solutions.
- And millions of girls continue to be impacted by child marriage, married off before their 18th birthdays.
- Because gender diverse teams perform better, as when more women work, economies grow.
- Because women are key to building a sustainable future — for us all.
The Inequality of Equality
“Equity isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.”
–International Women’s Day website, “Theme”, 2023
Equality isn’t enough, period. Think of it this way: You’re thirsty, but have no way to get the water from the well. You and everyone on the planet are given a bucket, huzzah! Now you can go to your well to draw some of that life-giving drink. (A)
Across the way, someone else draws from their well, but the water is tainted and tends to cause dysentery. (B) In another neighborhood, another person has a bucket, but no well within 50 miles. (C) Another neighbor across the way already has a clean well and a bucket, so they turn their free bucket into a planter for flowers. (D)
What Equality looks like: Everyone gets a bucket. (A, B, C, D)
What EQUITY looks like: Everyone gets access to clean water.
- A gets a bucket
- B gets a bucket and a water filter
- C gets a bucket full of water bottles
- D doesn’t get anything
Equality means everyone gets the same means; Equity means everyone gets the same end result.
Aiming for equality is a good first step toward equity, and it is easier and takes less calculation, attention, and investment. Moving past to aim for equity is the next logical step in the maturation of social policies, and it takes working together and self-education to support all humans. Equity also means being fair and impartial, despite barriers.
Geography, available resources, knowledge, culture, social contracts, circumstance, environment, health & wellbeing, and more factors into social equity. Social equity acknowledges that inequalities exist, must be eliminated, and addresses those systemic inequalities to ensure everyone in a community has access to similar opportunities and outcomes.
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A Global Celebration
There are so many ways one can celebrate IWD, no matter the gender, race or creed. Here are some stellar ways folks across the world recognize and uplift society with their celebrations:
The United States
Although the women’s rights movement was sparked into being in New York City in 1908, International Women’s Day is ironically not an official U.S. holiday although March is recognized as Women’s History Month. However, it is still celebrated on March 8th by many Americans through demonstrations, rallies, seminars, and corporate events that are often held in capital cities, bridging gaps through conversations guided by thought leadership.
Italy
La Festa Della Donna is what Italians call IWD. Any Italian woman might receive gifts of yellow mimosa flowers by those showing their affection to celebrate womanhood, and often exchange them with one another to signify female unity and strength.
China
Joining the party in 1949, China launched their first official IWD. In 1989, they went a step further and introduced Girl’s Day, dedicated to March 7th. On Women’s Day on March 8th, the objective in China is to demonstrate appreciation and respect to women by others with gifts, flowers, and cards. Employers are urged (but not required) to offer their female employees a half-day off on March 8th while others arrange talks, discussions and award ceremonies.
Russia
March 8th is an important day for families in the former USSR and is a national holiday that arose as a political commemoration of women’s struggles around the world for equal rights, peace, and democracy. Visiting family and sharing a feast with a toast of champagne comes along with flowers (often mimosas and roses), chocolates, poetry, and more given by people to their female family members of all ages.
The UK
Over the course of a three-day festival, The Women of the World (WOW) is in its 13th celebration. While this has spread over six continents in sister events, it originated in London. During this extended weekend you’ll find a coming together of activists, lecturers, and entertainers to address global issues affecting women. There’s much to do, see, and say; speeches, debates, walking tours, films, exhibitions, workshops, fun runs and more are a part of this celebration.
Argentina
As one of the earliest countries to get on board with International Women’s Day, Argentina traditionally honors women with flowers and presents. However, women have used the day to fight for gender equality, social change, equal pay, reproductive rights, and to protest the problematic extent of femicide there in recent years.
Nepal
In Nepal, Women’s Day is observed as an official holiday, and women are given the day off from work. Here they use the day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women everywhere. They also make a point on March 8th to highlight ongoing gender inequality and to call for further change.
Poland
Poland has a mixed history with IWD, or what they call Dzień Kobiet. From the early 20th century until about WWII, Women’s Day was a socialist governmental tool used to promote the image of a woman as the leading lady of labor who supports her country in response to immigrant and factory worker complaints of poor working conditions. It was mandatory that companies and schools celebrated during those years. Today, it has lost those overtones and is seen more like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day where ladies can expect to receive a symbolic tulip, the most popular gift of this day. Often spied on the streets on March 8th, young men with bunches of these tulips are out offering them to women who pass by.
Bulgaria
Similarly to Poland, International Women’s Day became an official holiday in Bulgaria in 1944 with the arrival of the Socialist regime. Once it shed those ties, the day’s popularity popped during the 1960s. Mothers are the main focus of this day, and often schoolchildren give flowers or handmade cards to their teachers in the morning. In turn, teachers lead children to then create cards in class to take home to give their mothers. In the corporate world, many companies buy red roses for every employed woman at their institution.
Saudi Arabia
A little late to the game, Saudi Arabia celebrated its first event that mirrors International Women’s Day in 2017, despite being held a month prior on February 1st-3rd as a three-day event. This is a grand day where both royalty and commonfolk come together to discuss women’s rights. Historically, Saudi Arabia has a spotty record when it comes to gender equality (ranked 134 out of 145 for gender equality in the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap report–it has since risen to 127th out of 146). They’re efforts are recent and telling, as they are making social headway.
“We want to celebrate the Saudi woman and her successful role, and remind people of her achievements in education, culture, medicine, literature and other areas.”
– Mohammed Al-Saif, King Fahd Cultural Centre spokesperson
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Now You
Want to join Fullmoon in celebrating the movement? Here’s 22 ways to get involved! Let us know how you are celebrating the women of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
#EmbraceEquity #IWD23
