Come March and the entire world comes forward to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March each year. This year, the theme for the day is “Choose to Challenge”. This day is celebrated globally, across countries, races and across all spectrums of life. This day has been designated each year to celebrate the cultural, social, economic and other achievements and victories of women from all walks of life.
Did you know that International Women’s Day(IWD) was first celebrated in 1911? Infact, the colours of the day are Purple, Green and White where purple signifies dignity, green symbolises hope and white represents purity and these colours originated way back in 1908 from the Women’s Social and Political Union(WSPU) in the UK.
Women have been subject to inequality and gender disparity since time immemorial. Are we seeing a change in this phenomenon? Yes but very slightly. While women in some segments of society are at par with the men, there is a significant part of the world where women are still subject to torture, inhuman and cruel behaviour.
Even though we as a society have made progress, there is no way we can be complacent about women empowerment. Infact, we have miles to go before we achieve an equal world for both women and men. Inspite of all our efforts, it is said that the world will not be able to achieve equality of genders even in the next century. However, this International Women’s Day, let’s pledge to support and encourage women in all walks of life to be empowered and thrive!
