Every year a special day is set aside to celebrate women’s achievements and call for a more gender-balanced world. We’ve come a long way but there’s still work to do.
Now, when writing this blog, there was a bit of playful, office bantz with our male colleagues asking why isn’t there an International Men’s Day (to which, of course, the answer is every day is Men’s Day) but this does throw up some interesting points. Feminism is often reduced to a “them and us”, a bra-burning Battle of the Sexes or an irrelevancy in these enlightened times.
Everybody is different, thank goodness; I know plenty of women who find Jeremy Clarkson interesting and some men who can find stuff at the back of the fridge. Gender equality does not mean that we are all the same, but it does mean that our rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether we’re male or female and everyone is free to live their lives without the weight of gender expectations and prejudices. So are you a feminist? If you’re still not sure here’s a really easy test for you to follow:
Hopefully one day we can all cheerfully sack off International Women’s Day because it simply isn’t needed, but here’s some of the reasons why the playing field isn’t level yet:
- Women with full-time jobs still earn only about 77 percent of their male counterparts' earnings
- 62 million girls are denied an education all over the world
- Every year, an estimated 15 million girls under 18 are married worldwide, with little or no say in the matter
- At least 1000 honour killings occur in India and Pakistan each annually
- Around the world, only 32 percent of all national parliamentarians are female. That's more than double the number in 1995, but still a marker of slow change
- Women currently hold 24, or 4.8 percent, of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies
So if you know a sister who’s doing it for herself, an independent woman or girl on fire, celebrate it with one of our badass, diva TShirts, mugs or hoodie designs. Snap up a bargain with our 10% discount code: WOMENSDAY if you order one of our TShirts before midnight on Friday. Laydees take a bow.