The roots of International women's day go as far back as 1909 when the US celebrated it's first National Women's day. If we consider what was at stake then in North America - the right to vote, the right to be persons under the law, we can see the roots of this event as a day of awareness.
The movement is about equal opportunity, not just for ourselves but for all people across the globe. We understand that the marginalization of one group, whether they be women, aboriginal people, children etc (unfortunately there are many ways we segregate each other) undermines the essential humanity of ALL of us, including those who marginalize others.
There is much clear work that tracks the health of a community to the health, safety, literacy and capacity of the women in it. The trickle down effect does work when we build adaptive capacities in humans. A great example of this is the work of The Greenbelt Movement through Wangari Maathai.
This year the UN theme is "A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women" Rape as a tool of war is an increasing concern not only in "war torn" countries" but we are seeing evidence of this organized intentional violence creeping into our communities. We need to only look to the Idle No More movement and the terrible events in Thunder Bay
Here is what it looks like on an organized level in Mali. This is not an isolated event and brings home the story of rape and violence against women in ways that should provoke us to question the economic and political links.
This post can go on about economic injustices, environmental, social, health injustices. International Woman's Day is not about a gender, it is about all of us existing together without undermining our own humanity in the process.
PS: International Woman's Day is a time for us to be reminded of our responsibility to protect. It is a time for us to remember what we need to learn to be prepared to be helpful.
Consider reading about our own economic and political links to some of
the world's greatest injustices that Samantha Nutt points out in her book Damned Nations if you haven't already.
