International Women's Day

This might make me a little unpopular but I'm going to go ahead and post it anyway!

As you probably know, yesterday was International Women's Day and I saw a LOT of posts about it on social media. I'm all for celebrating incredible women and don't take issue with the day itself, as such. However, I do take issue with the content of a lot of the posts I saw.

My first issue is that a lot of the posts "celebrating" women were patronising and almost negative in nature. It's hardly celebrating an achievement if you end your compliment with "for a woman". For example, a woman who created a lifesaving drug didn't do something incredible "for a woman", she merely did something incredible. Don't diminish women's achievements by making it sound like it's something that's only ahh achievement because they're female and any man could have done it - firstly, that's rarely true and secondly, it's turning a positive into a negative. We have a saying in powerlifting that is "Not strong for a woman, just strong" and I adore that sentiment.

My other issue with the content of posts is that they often mention all the incredible things that women now have the opportunity to do but don't take into consideration that what we've fought for is choice. It's incredible that nowadays women can be brain surgeons, lawyers, CEOs, firefighters and whatever else BUT I dislike the implications that if you don't do something amazing you're setting women's rights back. I love the fact that I have a choice, that I have a right to vote and that I am entitled to an education. However, all I've ever wanted in life is to be a mum and, as I'm relatively academically inclined, I get told that I'm wasting my life and by being perfectly happy to be a housewife I am undoing the hard work of those who fought for our rights. The world may be my oyster but, quite frankly, I don't like oysters.

So, when International Women's Day rolls around again, use it to celebrate the incredible achievements of women without patronising them, use it to campaign for rights of women in countries where they are still second class citizens and use it to tell the women in your life how much you appreciate them, whether they spent their day finding a cure for cancer or simply changing nappies and raising the kids.