Celebrations were held around the world to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. The celebrations ranged from Indian women and children watching street plays on female empowerment to women and activists marching at the capital in Morocco holding signs that said, “Women protesting for dignity, freedom, equality, social justice.” In Afghanistan, men wore burqas to protest against violence toward women and held signs reading, “We say no to all forms of violence,” reported AP.“Thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements,” stated the International Women’s Day website. Events range “from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking to local women’s craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades, and more.”In recent years, more public awareness has been given to prevent domestic abuse toward women and increase equal treatment. “IWD gives space for women’s voices to be heard and also potential for activism to be done for women’s causes; for example, domestic abuse, body images in advertising, education and so on,” stated Anna Christiansen, a BYU-Hawaii English teacher who also teaches women’s studies. Through social media, IWD has gained notoriety to prevent abuse inside and outside the home and to help women gain equality. The IWD website states, “The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.”Brooke Thomas, a BYUH graduate and intern from California, said in light of women’s improvement throughout history, “Well, we’ve come a long way. Feminism gets a bad name, but a lot of it now is educating people. Feminism simply means to be equal. It doesn’t mean men and women have to be the same. It just means we have equal rights, equal opportunity, equal pay...it started mostly about getting our rights and now its mostly getting our voices heard. We do hold up half the sky.”The IWD website continued, “However, great improvements have been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university...women have real choices.”International Women’s Day was first established in 1910 when Clara Zetkin, the leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, presented the idea in a conference of 100 women from 17 countries that there should be an annual day in every country for women to press for their demands, according to the IWD website. Since 1918, IWD has grown and “become a day of global recognition and celebration for women...Women’s organizations and governments around the world have observed IWD to honor women’s advancement and be reminded of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women’s equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life,” the IWD website says. Uploaded March 19, 2015
Writer: Rachel Reed
