The first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911 and it cannot be denied that in the last century, women have made giant strides ahead. They have not just got the vote and a political voice but have been heads of states across the globe. Not only that, they have made their mark in business, in sports, in entertainment and in the corporate work place.
A quick check shows that women are in far more positions of power today than anyone would have dreamed of in 1911. That said, there are now questions being raised about whether there is any need to celebrate this day at all. Several young women feel that the day is an insult — it diminishes them in the sense that if men and women are indeed equal, why do women need a special “day” marked out for them?
A nuanced response is required. The fact is, no matter how far ahead women have come, it is not yet far enough. Even in the most just societies, women are still a few steps behind the men. And when it comes to discrimination, women still bear the brunt of it and therefore as you scan the earth’s most totalitarian and restrictive regimes, it is still the women who remain the worst off.
International Women’s Day, therefore, is not just a celebration of what women have achieved but a reminder of how far they still have to go. It is a difficult journey and no steps would have been possible without the help and encouragement of many, many men. The earlier militant feminists who posited that a woman needed a man like a fish needed a bicycle — not at all in other words — have been replaced by those who know that gender inequality is a human problem and belittling men is hardly going to make women more equal.
In India, we have had the advantage of forward-thinking leaders at the start of our journey as a nation, who wrote gender equality into our foundations. Therefore, we have had to fight social prejudice and custom rather than the laws of the land to facilitate the rise and growth of women. We still may not have achieved as much as we could have, but we have improved in sectors like education, life expectancy and employment opportunities. Our biggest challenge today is possibly the continuing occurrence of female foeticide. This International Women’s Day, we need to salute the past and be firm in our convictions for the future.
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