Don’t wish us “happy International Women’s Day”

Helena Rodrigues

By GRID-Arendal

March 8^th, 2019

Take a look around your workplace and count how many women you see. Imagine a day in which none of them came to work. How many empty seats would you find? If you work for GRID-Arendal, half of the office would be empty. Now, picture waking up and not having access to goods and services made with female labour. Your clothes and coffee? Probably gone. Banks, supermarkets and restaurants? Probably closed. What about housework? Depending on your household, it could be undone too.

Does this seem like fiction? It’s not. It is the result of women striking around the world to celebrate International Women’s Day, which has happened every March 8th since 1911.

‪‪"Women have always been an equal part of the past. We just haven't been a part of history,"

American author Gloria Steinemonce said.

The United Nations recognised the InternationalWomen's Day in 1975 as a collective day for a global celebration of gender parity. It marks the struggle, but also highlights the remarkable improvements in the protection of female rights around the world. In 2019, the majority of women can vote, go to school and access the same jobs as men. Despite these gains, women still face prejudice in many countries.

“For me, International Women Rights Day has always been the worst day to talk about feminism and equal rights,”

says Lucile Genin, an intern from France working in GRID-Arendal’s Environmental Crime programme,

“In France marketing strategies and advertisements have popularised this day as being ‘a women’s celebration’ using the same sexist rhetoric against which this day has been created.

“This is why I’m always mad on the 8th of March,”

Genin says.

“Instead of casting light on real issues met by women, I usually spend my day explaining why it is sexist to wish a “happy women’s day” and offering roses in shops, or why the purpose of this day is not to read “ten ways to be more feminine” in the media.”

Besides this obvious contradiction, the discussion often focusses on the number of women in top jobs – as CEOs or on boards of directors. This is important but we risk missing the fact that the majority of women worldwide who are still trapped under the glass ceiling of pink-collar jobs, with a significant percentage of this majority struggling to stay in a “flooding basement”. Women are among the first to suffer from climate change and account for the majority of climate migrants, which puts them at a higher risk of trafficking, exploitation and sexualised military action.

They are also less likely to have access to economic opportunities, which stops them from escaping household poverty and violence. This day exists as a reminder that feminism is relevant to all because we cannot have a better society by ignoring the rights of over half the world’s population. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi brilliantly puts it in her book We Should All Be Feminists:

“Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general – but to choose the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender.”

“It’s important to take stock of the progress that has been made thus far and to think about how to tackle the many challenges that still exist, such as the gender pay gap,”

says Marco Vinaccia, Marine Project Administrator at GRID-Arendal.

Many of the projects at GRID-Arendal focus on empowering women.

“GRID-Arendal is working with the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Secretariat to produce a pocket guide on gender mainstreaming for the Secretariat and the Parties,”

says Runa Lindebjerg, Project Communications Officer at GRID-Arendal,

“The pocket guide includes information about gender equality in decision making, social and cultural norms and why women are more exposed to and sensitive to chemicals and pesticides. The pocket guide will be launched in April at a meeting in Geneva.”

Feminism provides a useful framework we can use to understand the world. In my case, through the writings of Gloria Steinem, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan and others, I found the freedom to grow into the woman I want to be, which I recognise is more than many girls are allowed. For this and those celebrating International Women’s Day today, I am thankful.