International Women’s Day is an UN-recognised day that celebrates the history of women’s rights globally. It honors the legacy of women’s activism that has paved the way for many women to achieve social, political, and cultural milestones. It also creates fund-raising events and opportunities for female-focused charities.
International Women’s Day is an intersectional, transnational, global holiday that reaffirms our commitment to work for a gender-just society. Every year, International Women’s Day has a theme around which it organizes events that showcase solidarity and helps raise awareness about a multitude of women’s issues. This year, the theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Choose to Challenge’.
Conceptually, the ‘Choose to Challenge’ theme involves being able to identify and call attention to the various challenges surrounding women across the globe. Wherever you are in the world, women and gender minorities face social, political, and economic hurdles that prevent them from living lives of dignity and respect. Recently, a study of 145 nations showed that the gender gap still hasn’t closed and that there is a disparity between men and women in economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The theme recognizes that the more you challenge the status quo, the more pressure you can put on institutions, governments, and other decision-making bodies to create a gender-just world. By sharing the #choosetochallenge hashtag on social media and if you wish, sharing your picture online, you commit to the task of fighting gender inequality at micro and macro levels. The organizers recognize that gender is a spectrum and therefore invites everyone to take part in this challenge.You can participate in the spirit of the theme by challenging inequality, calling out biases, questioning stereotypes, and even supporting local female-focused charities in your area with funding or volunteering. In the lead to International Women’s Day, we are reminded that a challenged world is an alert world, and an alert world is better equipped to work toward accelerated gender parity.
