This Thursday, March 8th marks the 104th International Women’s Day. Thursday is a day to not only recognize and celebrate the paths that feminists in the past have paved for us, but also a day to keep fighting, marching and standing up for the equal rights women deserve.
The past couple years, I have noticed a terrible trend of privileged, white women taking to social media to boast about how they “don’t need International Women’s Day.”
It is important, not only on days like International Women’s Day, but every day, to be aware of your privileges. Are you white? Are you wealthy? Are you straight? Do you have access to education and healthcare?
How do your answers to those questions affect the way people treat you? How do your answers give some people a head start and leave others behind?
Like it or not, these characteristics (race, gender, sexuality, class, etc.) influence every single thing you do. While one might feel protected walking past a police officer, another feels afraid. While one might feel comfortable and accepted publicly expressing their religious beliefs, another feels threatened. And while one woman might feel like she has the same exact opportunities as her husband or brother, another simply cannot say the same. So today, it is our duty as privileged women to stand up for the rights of those whose voices have been muffled by the norms instilled within our institutionally-racist and heteronormative society.