International Women’s Day ought to go beyond the “happy women’s Day” posts on our social media

An article by Nalumansi Angel Elizabeth, a gender and Human rights activist and member of Together for a new Africa in Uganda

Women’s day ought to be much more than that ‘’HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY’’ text you shared; it transcends posting pictures of all the women in your circle.  Our generation has totally lost touch with ideologies and perspectives of originators of this day, we have chosen to watch the efforts of Clara Zetkin, Kate Duncker, Paula Thiede and others, retire from sight.

The roots of this day lay in a labor movement and back in the day, very many revolutions were inaugurated on women’s day, today what do we do? We sit back and post happy women’s day on our WhatsApp statuses… We are too comfortable with the adversities of the internet that we are failing to get a hands-on encounter in the cause to eliminate the gender injustices. Isn’t this day meant to be a point of convergence in the evolution of women’s rights?

In 1910, during the second International Conference of Working Women which was held in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin who was the then, leader of the women’s office for the social democratic party in Germany presented the idea of an International Women’s Day. Her suggestion was that every year in every single country there would be a celebration on the same day, a Women’s Day to press for their demands. The first theme the United Nations celebrated the International Women’s Day was in 1975 and the theme was ‘’Celebrating the past, Planning for the future’’.

This theme piqued my interest and drew my attention to the notion that the past was female and its up to us to celebrate the past as we plan for the future; what we celebrate we attract. However, as we celebrate, we ought to make visible the achievements of women while continuing the call for accelerating gender parity. The positive recent steps towards gender equality and social justice for women can barely go unmentioned and thus I urge every single one of us to make it our deliberate aim to the inequality gap between men and women.

The theme for the international women’s day celebration this year is ‘’gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’’.  

The covid 19 period widened the gender gaps in paid work and businesses; since it set off a waves of work stoppages and closure of businesses which affected the women more than the men. It was also associated with a vast violation of the rights of women ranging from sexual violence to domestic violence which later resulted into denial of their rights to education as some were impregnated.

Gender equality is sustainable development goal number five and it is aimed at ending all forms of discrimination against girls and women, eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in all spheres, do away with all harmful practices such as early or forced marriages and female genital mutilation that have continued to be practiced against the will of the victims. Gender equality also includes insurance of women’s full participation and equal opportunities at all levels of decision making, observing sexual and reproductive rights among others.

To ably achieve all of the above, we need to play our roles in women empowerment because women empowerment goes hand in hand with gender equality. Let us direct all our efforts towards empowering and uplifting each other in all our capacities so as to achieve a sustainable future for all. There must be a social relationship before we can achieve the equal future we hope for.

When we are born, we do not choose to be women but we can choose the future we want to have for all women and the time is now.

Happy women’s day.