Lots of people, men and women, often confuse Women’s Day to be some sort of ‘Day For Women’ – you know, a day when women can dress up, eat out, get rest and so on. Not completely untrue 😊 But the origins of Women’s Day were not so trivial. So today, let’s get to understand what Women’s Day really means!
Women’s Day is a commemoration. To the Hundreds and Thousands of nameless women who came out on the streets to Fight. Fight for the right to public spaces, for equal rights at work, for equal pay at work, for the right to vote…you name it. This, we are talking of 1910 onwards when the protests were arranged on the 8th of March, a Sunday, when women could keep all their work aside, get out and make their voices heard. This isn’t to say that the fight for us began just in 1910, women have been struggling for ages and ages to get their rights!
Did you know that women began fighting for the right to vote in 1914, only to finally be granted in 1918? Yes, that’s 4 (known) years of protest, and many many years before that of bubbling resentment in women who watched their husbands and sons go off to vote wondering why they didn’t matter.
We have become what we are today
For they fought for us on this day!s
The rights and freedoms that women enjoy today? We owe them to these ladies, fearless and persistent for making our lives easier!
So, Women’s Day is about remembering these brave women, about taking a moment or two to thank them for everything they paved the road for and to feel the pride for how far we have made it! Yes, we celebrate it by going out, dining and having fun, because, sadly, we even had to earn the rights to do that, a far cry from days when only the men could do so. We have come a long, long way, and we deserve to celebrate this progress!
But let’s never forget that Women’s Day was also about fights – for our rights, our lives and our happiness. While a large part of this fight was with others, I think it’s now time for us women to fight with ourselves. Fight against the ever-pervading guilt that stops us from living our lives the way we want to. Fight against the age-old patriarchal customs and rituals, so deeply ingrained in our minds that we refuse to let go of them! Fight against the stereotypes that we ourselves follow in all the little things every day. Fight against the sense of duty we face each time we try to keep ourselves before others. And Fight, because that’s we do, to make our lives and the lives of all the generations after worth living!
Happy Women’s Day! Keep Living, Keep Fighting and Keep Inspiring!!