Celebrate International Women’s Day (and keep working)

Impressive women are leading all over our community, from Ross Memorial Hospital to Fleming College, the Crown Attorney’s office, our paramedic service, multiple thriving businesses and the vast majority of the charitable and non-profit groups that make life in Kawartha Lakes richer and kinder.

Those of us of a certain age know what a staggering level of change this represents from just a few decades ago. We also know we can never take such progress for granted, which is why we still need International Women’s Day (IWD) as a reminder that the work is far from over.

The day has its origins in support for women’s labour groups and campaigns for equal voting rights. The first IWD took place in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 1911. The UN designated March 8 as IWD in 1975, but until relatively recently, it’s been a bigger deal in other countries than here.

Sometimes reduced in the past to an oversimplified message akin to Girl Power, the day has become a critical moment in the year to pause and reflect on the status of women all over the world. If that reflection leads you to righteous anger, you’re not alone.

Around the globe, women and girls are still oppressed and harassed, barred from education and forced into marriage. It is enraging that rape remains a common tactic in war and that men still have control over the women in their family in far too much of the world.

Here in Canada, we’re all too accustomed to stories of women murdered by an intimate partner, frequently just as they prepare to leave an abusive relationship. Girls and women are still judged for their looks and “likeability” where men and boys are evaluated on ability.

Through their own strength, determination and ability, as well as the support of right-thinking men, women have made enormous gains when it comes to work and social equality. The realities of caring for children and aging parents, as well as the still-unequal burden of running a home, still tend to fall disproportionately on women, though. (And by the way, every mother works — some just work outside the home as well.)

The good news is that issues affecting women are increasingly considered mainstream, thanks to younger generations refusing to accept the limitations of the past. Menstruation and menopause are no longer unthinkable subjects of conversation; misogynist language and behaviour are appropriately called out.

There is so much to appreciate this International Women’s Day, but as we’ve seen in the United States, the gains are never secure. To people of goodwill of all genders: Keep up the fight.