“The future is exciting. Let’s build a gender balanced world.” This is the slogan for the 2019 International Women’s Day campaign. Their social media tagline, #BalanceforBetter, suggests that the world is a better place when the power and privilege of both men and women are balanced, or equal. This year, the organization is focusing on equality in the workplace. The balance that they speak of is a balance of male and female counterparts in CEO positions, hospital leadership, congress, and much more. The campaign aims to see more equal media coverage of women’s accomplishments as well as in athletic events, such as the upcoming Women’s World Cup. Aside from their main campaign, they encourage spreading their message through collaboration, motivation, and social media publicity.
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The annual March 8 celebration of women has been around for over 100 years. It began on March 19, 1911 and was only celebrated in four countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. This international commemoration of women was started by a german woman named Clara Zetkin, an attendee of the second International Conference of Working Women in 1910, who suggested a designated day to appreciate and celebrate women. The motivations and principles behind International Women’s Day were much different then than they are today. 108 years ago women were fighting for the right to vote, the chance to attend universities, and to work in occupations other than secretary, teacher, and other similar jobs. The change they sought to make was monumental; they laid the entire foundation for gender equality. Now women are fighting for more subtle, but equally as important and impactful change.
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Now that women have successfully won a spot in the race, activism now seeks to ensure that women have the same chances of getting to the finish line as men do. Activism is now about implementing STEM programs into schools to encourage young girls to pursue a career in the field so that men and women are equally represented in those occupations. Today, people have to be aware of not just the gender wage gap, but why it exists at all. It exists because women were barred from high paying occupations, and the education needed to pursue them, for so long. International Women’s Day is about celebrating the strides women have made worldwide, and about achieving global, true equality. Equality in the workforce, the home and society. It’s not just about basic human rights anymore, it’s much more complex.