Over a century ago, the first official International Women’s Day (IWD) was marked by over a million people throughout Europe. Its aim was to promote equal rights and spread word of the women’s suffrage movement. Whilst the day originated within the Communist Workers’ Movement, it was eventually reenvisioned as a day of protest and as a call to action by second-wave feminists in 1967. From 1977, the United Nations developed a specific theme to the day, women’s struggle, and this year is dedicated to the role women play in achieving justice.
A timely choice you might think considering the biggest story consuming every news channel, in every newspaper and social media feed is the nightmare inducing content of the Epstein files. This year’s IWD will have to do some serious heavy lifting under the black cloud of evidence showing hundreds, if not thousands of young women and girls, who were trafficked by Epstein to be abused by his wealthy and powerful chums.
The harsh reality faced by women around the world
It’s hard to stomach the generic and useless slogans supposedly empowering women to believe the future is female when a large percentage are prevented from becoming full participants in society. According to the United Nations, women have only 64% of the legal rights that men hold worldwide and it will take an estimated 286 years to close legal protection gaps for women if we continue at the current rate. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing these are Third World problems but stats produced by the Office for National Statistics show that, in 2025, women in the UK were still being paid 6.9% less that men. Whilst some may argue that women have never had it better, I would argue there should be no female inequality, in any form, by now.
Cynical commercialism
As IWD approaches, numerous corporations will dust down their pink coloured ‘inspirational’ banners and will bombard the inboxes of women everywhere offering 20% off some new-fangled, age defying face cream just because she is a woman. The same corporations who are unlikely to have even one woman on their board, or rely on child labour to mass produce T-shirts depicting a female symbol that will be discarded and sent to landfill before the day’s out. The day is merely a tick box exercise for many companies to appear inclusive, but their actions bring little or no change. In fact, it belittles the very message of equality by pandering to a gender stereotype and minimising real issues in a cynical ploy to make money.
The need for real change
As a woman rapidly approaching her forties, I want to see tangible change in the daily lives of women across the world. I don’t want another year of generic slogans and soundbites that bury the need for real systemic change. I want to know every woman and girl is able to go about their lives safely, valued and respected and to be given every opportunity to flourish in whatever way they see fit. IWD should be a day of reflection on what is still needed, not just hypothetically but practically, for every woman to have the right to choose her own path without prejudice and without fear of violence. On this International Women’s Day, make time to have those long, uncomfortable and difficult conversations with the men and women in your life because only then can change truly happen.
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