As this significant day approached , my inbox was flooded with different opportunities to attend various events to recognize International Women’s Day.  As a leader of an organization which has a major focus on responding to and working to eradicate abuse and violence against women, such invitations are plentiful and too numerous to embrace all of them.

It has me wondering about the experiences of other people A lot of great energy goes into raising the profile of the many different causes affecting societies and individuals.

Which ones rise to the top of people’s attention?

How does raising awareness lead to the types of changes that are often end goals of these campaigns?

Do people who work outside of traditional social and mental health services have similar opportunities to be exposed to these events in the way that I have the privilege to?

I have to expect the answer is no, as people at work are impacted by causes that relate to their sector and may not be working in environments that communicate around social causes.  They are most likely left to get their information through social or other media (a blog for another day), and this begs the further question:

How does the average person know what to place their attention on with the avalanche of causes competing for space in their heads and heart?

I have to admit to some (or maybe a ton) of bias in saying International Women’s Day deserves a lot of attention.  Gender has been, and continues to be one of the most effective ways that we divide ourselves in society; into the dichotomy of us and them.  That division of seeing ourselves as members of separate camps is the foundation of virtually everything that goes so wrong in our society. The first step in every injustice is defining someone else as “not me”.  While this may seem innocent and merely descriptive at first glance, such categorization seems to inevitably lead to the ranking of different groups.  The ranking then leads to the exercise of granting privilege, power and profitability to certain groups and the denial of same to others.

The roots of International Women’s Day lie in the fight to recognize and fairly compensate women’s labour , as well as every woman’s right to vote and influence the decisions that shape the world.  It is an effort to disrupt the story that women’s participation and contribution to society is supplementary, insignificant or non- essential  as compared to the contributions of their male counterparts’ .

Given, at a minimum, women’s physical role in creating society’s members, it takes quite a distortion of consciousness, to cast women in, at best, a supporting role in society.

Women’s role in society cannot be truly understood without being sure we understand the lens of the person who is telling the story.  For most of us, the stories we hear about women are told from a lens of patriarchy, a male oriented point of view.  This can often be true even when the voice of the story is female, as women’s experience of themselves and their lives is very highly influenced by patriarchy. As women, there is often a constant discomfort, a cognitive dissonance between who society says we are and should be and our internal lived experience.

Oddly enough, one of the most direct and succinct women’s speeches on this very topic that I’ve heard in a long time was the now viral rant near the end of the Barbie movie.  Like many people, I didn’t know what to expect from the movie.  I had just heard it was good and figured it would be a nice trip down memory lane – it was just that and a good laugh as well. Having had “Growing Up Skipper”and created some “Weird Barbies”, these movie moments touched some memorable places from childhood.

For those who may not have seen it, near the climax of the movie the protagonist mom launches into a speech which ends with something to the effect of “it’s just so frustrating and impossible and contradictory to be the things that society insists you are supposed to be as a woman”.  The contradictions listed hit me straight in the heart and mind of my existence.  In the movie, her rant snaps the Barbies out of their stupors and back to consciousness.  It was a fabulous “the truth shall set you free moment”.

I believe International Women’s Day at its best is a  “the truth shall set you free “ day.  When we more critically and accurately reflect on the contributions, strength and resiliency of women in our society, we know that on-going gender inequality cannot possibly be the best way to organize a society.  We know that when we erroneously assume that life is a zero-sum game, and half of the population continues to “lose” because that game is rigged against them, there can be no peace.  Only when we stop asserting the superiority and privilege of some of us over the rest of us, can we improve our society.

There will always be people from every group who intrinsically know that we truly are all in this together.  We can feel that they are indeed their sibling’s keeper, and that a rising tide raises all boats.  Those of us who consciously know and recognize the value of trying to live the truth will keep pressing towards this greater recognition, and when we celebrate this, we move the needle.

And that is really the why of International Women’s Day.  It is a day to stand up and tell some truths, pull away the delusion that some of us are less than and less worthy than.  Throw light on the possibility that there is another way, a truer way, a better way. Every day that we stand up for the rights of a group that is being “othered” is a good day for all of us. Here’s to many more good days.