I am just a girl, what would I know? I wear pretty pink bows and smile politely. I must remember to always use my manners and never go out after dark or walk alone. I am just a girl, I couldn’t possibly have anything intelligent to say, but I can bake a fabulous apple pie. I must remember my place is in the kitchen, my mission to look pretty at all times and make sure the house sparkles too . . . . . Yeah right!!!!!! Sorry, not sorry, but those days are long gone! I am a woman with a voice, and with a choice, this is my life and no one is going to control me.
Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day, and I could not let the day pass without acknowledging how proud I am to be a woman, and how proud I am of all the amazing strong woman in my life. In a recent post I spoke openly about my pride of being a feminist and why I choose to call myself a feminist so I won’t go into that except to say that if you haven’t read that post you can do so by clicking HERE.
“I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
International Women’s day is a global day in which we can acknowledge and celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of some extremely inspirational women, from women in our past and the women still fighting today for equality for all. It is all too easy to sit back today and take for granted the privileges we have, but even as a white women in a privileged country I can honestly say I have been judged because I am a girl/woman. I want to be seen as an equal, just as I want my daughters to be seen as equals, but it goes beyond my own personal stories of hardship as a woman, the inappropriate comments, groping and abuse I have endured. My heart goes out to the women in countries where they still have no rights, where they are traded like a commodity, or married off when they are still barely a teen. I am blessed to have made those choices for myself, many women and young girls do not get given a choice and we cannot sit here in our privileged country and pretend that isn’t going on!
“Because you are women, people will force their thinking on you, their boundaries on you. They will tell you how to dress, how to behave, who you can meet and where you can go. Don’t live in the shadows of people’s judgement. Make your own choices in the light of your own wisdom”.
Amitabh Bachchan
International Women’s day is not about putting men down, or saying we are the better, stronger, smarter gender, it is not about hating men, or blaming them for anything bad in our world. It is a day to acknowledge that women of yesteryear have had to fight, and even die to make this world a better place for us women who live now with the right to vote, the right to work, the right to birth control, the right to say no to sex! It is about thanking those women, and it is about us uniting as women and men and saying that everyone deserves to be treated with decency, respect and care. It is about saying no to abuse, oppression, violence and inequality.
“I do not wish women to have power over men;
but over themselves.”
Mary Wollstonecraft
I will leave you with this, we may not be able to make massive changes the world when we go it alone, but with women by our side united in sisterhood we can sure make a huge difference together!
Any thoughts? Please share.
Love, Mac
16 comments
This is a wonderful post Mackenzie! A thoroughly good read – both heartfelt and heart lifting. I’ve always been confused and sobered by the inequalities I witnessed as a girl. In the 70’s it felt as if you were expected to get into line and don’t cause waves. In the 80’s I was speaking out but felt judged harshly for it. By the 90’s many voices, men and women were speaking out, but it was still considered ‘uncool’. Today, is the first decade I remember not feeling slightly awkward to call myself a feminist. Today my son and husband can even speak out without embarrassment. But this is over 50 years. It’s taken 50 years just to reclaim the word feminism. I’m thrilled, but I hope for my granddaughters the pace picks up. I have a feeling it will, I am filled with hope – and that’s new too. xx
A few years ago we celebrated International women’s day in the hostel I was living in and it gave me so much to be thankful for. We were a group of women dealing with abusive exes and trying to adjust to single parenthood and at the time I felt so incredibly week. I always like to acknowledge that day as a turning point in my life for just saying no to the crap I was dealing with and being strong for myself. #ablogginggoodtime
Thank you, Mackenzie, for taking this post beyond first world concerns and into the startling truth that in many cultures women are STILL considered to be little more than property.
I agree so much that we need to have power over ourselves. I love my husband and the men in my life have never made me feel less than able simply because I was a woman. I want to raise my daughter like that. #ablogginggoodtime
fabulous post McKenzie xxxx #ablogginggoodtime
Wonderful post. I particularly liked the Mary Wollstonecraft quote 🙂
Great post and I agree with it all. My only comment is that I hear so many stories from my teenage son about girls feeling they have to send nude pictures to boys these days…I just wish they would feel empowered enough this say no. #ablogginggoodtime
Totally agree. I long for the day that we don’t need an international women’s day because we will all be considered equal. Such a way to go still. #bloggonggooodtime
Woo yeah! This is exactly what IWD is about for me – it’s a moment to pause and reflect and acknowledge and make the conversation heard by the world! #ablogginggoodtime
Great post! Cheers to strong women everywhere! #BlogCrush
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
It’s so wrong that we aren’t all seen equally. Sorry to read that you have experienced things no woman should ever face. #ablogginggoodtime
I think these last few months, with the recent campaigns going on, and also now that I am raising girls of my own, I have really been fired up to take more of a stand on this. I am not going to be trodden down – being female DOES NOT make me less intelligent or less worthy or have less to contribute. Great post.
And congratulations because someone loved this post so much, they added it to the BlogCrush linky! Feel free to collect your “I’ve been featured” blog badge 🙂 #blogcrush
The most important thing International Women’s Day tells me is that we now have choice. We can be whatever we want to be – stay at home mum, housewife, international businesswoman…it’s all ok as long as it’s what we want. #ablogginggoodtime
This is a lovely, heartwarming and empowering post x #StayClassyMama
Women empowerment – girls rock and they are wise and can pretty much do anything boys/men can do – except produce sperm, lol #StayClassyMama
Women around the world should be free to make the same choices as men and until they have that freedom they are subjugated by a society that doesn’t value the sexes equally. Thanks for linking up with #stayclassymama
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