It is that one designated day in the year where women can put aside social pressures and internal pressures; and celebrate where we are as women. There are dedicated events, blogs and articles celebrating womanhood and female empowerment and for one day we can step on the head of low self-esteem and enjoy the euphoria of International Women's Day. Now, whilst I completely love any opportunity to celebrate confidence, gender equality and women empowerment, we should extend this beyond a day or the month of March; and make it our lifestyle. The thought that once the day is done, or an event we attend is over we revert back to a society where we are constantly assessing our looks, achievements and supposed failures against the yardstick of imaginary perfection. Wouldn't it be great if we could extend International Women's Day to a whole year, where we stop stressing about trying to have it all together all of the time and enjoy whatever stage of the journey we're in? In celebration of International Women's Day, I have created a 'wish list' for all women.
My first item would be that post International Women's Day we celebrate our differences, whether you are a homemaker or a CEO, that both in turn are celebrated; with neither one being coined or portrayed as less than. I have friends who make wonderful sassy homemakers, but who often feel like they have failed somewhere because they haven't secured that corporate job. Whilst, insanely, my corporate friends are panicking about starting a family and the appropriate time to do so. How about we empower every woman irrespective of her job title, making her feel safe and comfortable with her life choices?
The second would be that we "own it", what that 'it' is for you; that we begin to own, love and even respect who we are as women, putting an end to low self-esteem and the need to compare ourselves to one another. Instead, embracing our curves, height or hair textures; beyond a day, where social media isn't the yardstick we use to measure our worth or validate us. Instead, making a point to relax and enjoy who we are. On that note, my third and final 'wish list' item would definitely be that we relaxed a little, we stopped trying to 'have it all', whatever 'all' is and simply enjoyed where we are. Where we didn't have to cave to the pressures of being everything, to everyone all of the time, in order to justify our womanhood. There are amazing women all over the world doing incredible things, every day. No doubt, you are one of them, but often in our quest for more, we rarely stop and enjoy what we have already achieved. We should enjoy the 'all' we have now, just a little more.
International Women's Day is the celebration of all women, empowering us to live our best lives, negating the myth that women do not support other women but instead qualifying the truth that whilst we have a long way to go on gender equality, Sex Trafficking and other social justice issues, we are standing together in support of each other. This is wonderful, why reduce it to a day; let's have International Women's Day every day.