Choose to Challenge: International Women’s Day 2021

Written By Payton McPhee

Header Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash

On March 8th of each year, International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world. International Women’s Day is a day which is dedicated to bringing awareness to gender inequality, celebrating the achievements of women and taking action to mitigate the biased world we live in. The first celebration of International Women’s Day occurred in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland and its events have only continued to grow since then.

Each year, International Women’s Day is characterized by a theme that is shared on their website. The theme for this year's event is “Choose to Challenge.” This theme signifies the importance of challenging the social and political norms of today in order to create a better and more equal tomorrow. Being complacent with the gender pay gap, underrepresentation of women in leadership roles and devaluing the achievements of women is a behaviour that is forcing our world to be static. By choosing to challenge the world and refusing to be complacent, there is an opportunity for growth, learning, and becoming alert to the biases and inequality that women experience daily.

Gender inequality is an issue that is ingrained in many cultures but differs in certain countries and certain parts of the world. Today, women are still being marginalized in the workforce, the government, educational institutions, and even in their own homes. Women are too often underrepresented in government and high-ranking jobs, can have less access to education, and can be seen as lesser to their husbands. The well-known stereotypical “breadwinner” and “homemaker” assumptions of men and women have placed women in a position of inferiority within their own homes. Although some cultures are progressing faster than others, there is still a long road ahead to achieve gender parity, which is the equal representation of all genders.  

Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash

The Global Gender Gap Report 2020 from The Word Economic Forum claims that the world will not see gender parity within our current lifetimes. It is estimated that gender parity will not be obtained within North America for about 151 years. This estimation is based on economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. If these four categories are broken down, it is suggested that global gender parity in regard to education will arise in just 12 years, however, it will take 95 for global gender parity in political representation. The lack of gender parity in political representation is said to be caused by the “role-model effect” which suggests that the role models we see in politics are generally men. 

Although this estimation is grim, we can only work together in order to shorten the road to gender parity. This is what International Women’s Day hopes to achieve.  Becoming informed, calling out inequality, and uplifting women is only the beginning of what we can do to play our role in achieving gender equality.

One area that is in desperate need of greater awareness and action is with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. There are staggering statistics of violence toward Indigenous women within our country that illustrate the widespread need for acknowledgement of marginalized women. In 2017, it was reported that Indigenous women make up 10% of the population of missing women in Canada and a disproportionate amount of these missing persons and homicide cases remain unsolved today. Choosing to challenge is not only the theme for this year's event, but it is also a necessary decision in order to bring awareness to the areas of our world that indicate gender inequality, such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada.

There are countless ways to get involved with this celebration. Showing extra appreciation for the women in your life, attending a virtual event or even just wearing purple, green, and white are easy ways to get involved with the movement and bring awareness. The colours purple, green, and white are the official colours of International Women’s Day with purple signifying justice and dignity, green representing hope and white showcasing purity. Various events such as summits, lectures, concerts, and conferences are being held in honour of International Women’s Day 2021 and can be found on their website. Saint Mary’s University is also hosting its own virtual event today from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm called International Women’s Day: Faculty Author Series with Dr. Rohini Bannerjee. 

Women should be celebrated each and every day. After all, none of us would be here without them!