International Women’s Day – my thoughts
While my social media starts to overflow with cheerful posts and happy pictures about International Women’s Day my thoughts are going everywhere. Spring has started and sunshine and colourful blossoms are everywhere, but to me it seems the days are only darkening. For a long time I thought this day existed to put women around the world in the picture, to thank them for all their hard work and show our appreciation. I rarely thought of all the inequality so many women still experience, of the hardship many women go through simply because of their gender. I took many things for granted that other women fought so hard for: the right to vote or be voted for, the right to work, the right to have your own bank account, the right to wear what you want, the right to decide what happens to your own body, the right to choose whether or not you want children…
Many women in our world never had these freedoms, which were quite normal for me while growing up. I read about these rights thinking the fights to acquire them were largely in the past. That women’s rights around the world would soon be equal everywhere. But sadly we never got his far. And what’s worse is that our world is changing and things seem to go backwards with undying speed. In a time where everybody should worry about the huge impact that climate change will have on our and our children’s future, we witness the world being run more and more by evil men that crave nothing but power and wealth. Wars are started without care for consequences or human life. Started by men that can’t take no, men that always need to have their way, by entitled men that feel they are right just because they say they are. They are nothing but fully grown toddlers without boundaries, never knowing when to stop because they literally hold the big guns. (Social) media is giving them more traction by sharing their evil deeds on the worldwide web, often relishing it instead of judging it and calling outrage. In the wake of their widely spread thirst for violence, control and power, many men around the world follow their bad example: If you want something just take it. Fuck the consequences. If they can do it, so can you. As a result women’s right are being taken away faster than ever. The overturn of Roe vs Wade made the USA a tribal country, where women are dying because they can’t even end a life threatening pregnancy. The Taliban regime will not allow girls over 12 to go to school anymore, but who cares, that’s not us, right? And even close to home, in ‘modern’ Europe we too often see cases of femicide. women murdered by men because they considered them property and couldn’t control them. Our social media is filled with reactions from indignant men, because they would never do such a thing and don’t know any man who would do such a thing, making it about them, instead of about the women murdered. WTF! I mean, really? Did YOU ever think: maybe I should not wear this because it will attract unwanted attention? Did YOU ever smile/nod/agree just because you tried to avoid a violent reaction? Did you ever not do something simply because you are male? And while we’re on that note. Did or did you not look up when it’s International Men’s Day? Because it’s not fair when it’s not about you, right?
As a young girl I thought I had endless possibilities to be whatever I wanted to be. I was sure the world would never go through another senseless war again, because we had learned from the World Wars. I have never been so wrong. History repeats itself over and over again. Simply because men think they need to be manly, whatever that may mean to them. Surprise! Your gender does not decide your character. You don’t need to be physically strong, bossy, violent or powerful to be considered a man. You may cry, you may share being the bread winner with your partner. You may raise children without screaming and violence. You don’t need to fight. You may be kind and caring. It doesn’t take away anything from you being a man.
But let me now not make this International Women’s Day about men. Let’s get back to the reasons this day still exists. The answer is very simple. Because everyone, men and women alike, needs to be aware that women’s rights are not at all where they should be. Even when things for you personally are good, even if you are a woman ‘allowed’ to do everything a man can do, even if you are a man who does nothing else than support women. There are still millions of women around the world that have no rights, simply because of their gender. They can’t choose how they want to live. They don’t have the right to decide about their own bodies. And as long as that is the case, we honestly don’t need one International Women’s Day a year. We need 365 of them.
Carien 8 /3/2026
