Bryony Gordon
Why we still need International Women’s Day
‘Women have a voice – they need to feel able to use it’
Next Thursday is International Women’s Day. Some people get very upset on International Women’s Day, as if its very existence threatens their masculinity and might cause their penis to drop off.
They cannot work out why, when women have had the vote for 100 years, we still need to be discussing this stuff. I mean, if anything, it’s men who need their own day now that we all have to pay lip service to the ladies and ... oh look, they do!
This year, International Men’s Day falls on November 19. I look forward to celebrating it with you, and no jokes at the back about every day being International Men’s Day.
Of course, it isn’t just men who find International Women’s Day unpalatable (and I should say here that not all blokes are against it). Some females of the species think it suggests that women are not equal to men.
I don’t really know how to respond to this, other than by saying that in many areas of life, and in many parts of the world, from Hollywood to Hargeisa, they aren’t. Think we no longer need an International Women’s Day? Here are just a few reasons why we do.
Last week, almost four years after Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the remote town of Chibok, the terrorist group stormed a girls’ dormitory in northeastern Nigeria and abducted some 100 children.
The government initially denied that anything happened, but many of the schoolchildren are still missing, taken by a violent group of insurgents who rape, force women into marriage, and use young girls as human bombs. “The use of women is mainly from the fact that they are expendable,” said Aisha Yesufu, a campaigner with Bring Back Our Girls, last year. “Women are easy targets and they are easily controlled... women are not given much respect, they are not seen as equals and can easily be cowed into obeying whatever vile instructions are given to them.” Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, where women will shortly be allowed to drive (!), one of the country’s only female officials was lauded this week for wearing trousers, and not head-to-toe black robes. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-saud told the Atlantic Council in Washington that allowing women behind the steering wheel in cars was not the only concession that the kingdom would make to females. There were deeper issues being worked on, such as “a woman feeling safe in her own home”. It is 2018.
Two hundred million women around the world are currently suffering from the effects of female genital mutilation, which can cause infection, infertility and even death. Last year, it was revealed that a case of FGM is either discovered or treated at a medical appointment in England every hour.
Period poverty, where women and girls cannot afford sanitary protection, is a huge issue across the globe – and even here in the UK. Research by Women For Independence recently found that one in five Scottish women has struggled to buy tampons or pads, instead having to use toilet paper, rags, old clothes, and even newspapers.
A perfectly sensible pledge by the BBC to give half of all new Proms commissions to women by 2020 has been met with howls of derision by some who say that it is unfair to male composers. “I have never witnessed any discrimination against female composers,” wrote Sally Cavender, who is vice-chairman of Faber Music, this week. “What I have seen is that there were formerly fewer of them.” And why might that be, Sally?
On Wednesday, two high-profile females appeared at a charity forum to discuss the rights of women and children. The Duchess of Cambridge spoke about how her mental health work had affected her parenting.
“This is how Kate Middleton is bringing up Prince William’s kids!” screamed one gossip site, as if she was the nanny.
Meanwhile, Meghan Markle said that with the Metoo and Time’sup campaigns, there had never been a better time to “shine a light on women feeling empowered… What’s interesting is, you’ll often hear people say, ‘Well, you’re helping women find their voices’ and I fundamentally disagree with that. Women don’t need to find a voice. They have a voice – they need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen.”
Many responded with long, gushing pieces about how lovely Ms Markle’s dress was. Nobody commented on her husband-tobe’s trousers or desert boots.
And that, my friends, is another reason why we need an International Women’s Day.