International Women’s Day 2023

Today is here again, 8th March has gone and returned in 2023, and we are celebrating this great day as usual. Yes, today is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY (IWD)and the theme for this year’s celebration is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”. This year’s IWD celebration aims at highlighting the role of innovative technology in promoting gender equality and meeting the health and developmental needs of women and girls. This is a date set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

Like every other year since the year 1909, last year we celebrated this day with the theme “Gender equality today for a Sustainable Tomorrow”. A lot of events took place, there were seminars, webinars, quizzes for school children, street carnivals, discussions on tv stations, posts on a thousand (1,000) and one (1) blogs and so on, all aimed at driving home the theme for the day last year. One year on, what has been the story? What has changed? Has the role of women in society been redefined? Are equal opportunities being given to women? Have men accepted that women should not be measured by just their gender? I could ask lots of questions, maybe in your country, background and environment, the story might be different, but allow me share my experience.

I think that we are still where we used to be, if not gone back. I will explain why; I was excited to see a

lot of young women come out to declare their intentions to contest in Ghana’s election 2024. My excitement did not just stem from the fact that I am female, but from the fact that they will be more examples for young female children to look up to. Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived when I saw the reaction from people on the declaration of intent. The comments were not just coming from men, but from women as well! Let me share with you what Miss Abdullah shared on this topic, according to her, one of her female friends who is a human rights activist and a gender advocate is aspiring to become a member of parliament in Ghana. She made her intentions known on Facebook and a lot of men where backlashing her not because she is not financially, socially, economically, emotionally and economically capable, The backlash was because she is a woman and she advocates for women! It’s not enough to think that it is wrong to contest for a political position because you are female but also because she advocates for women’s rights.

This is just one out of many examples of women being judged for being women. There is also a case in example where a woman was accused of not being qualified to lead her people in parliament because she is not married, the argument changed that she did not have a child, she decided to have and guess what the story was this time? That a woman cannot led a delegation to go to mourn at a funeral! That is how petty the situation has become. And these are not said behind closed doors, these are actually accusations rained on women on air! Many women, after going through these, will just give up.

Out of our 275 MPs in the Ghanaian parliament house, only 40, that is 14.5% are female! Does it mean anything to you? Women are making the efforts, but the bottlenecks and challenges are way too many for some of them to overcome.

After setting aside this day to celebrate women and highlight the importance of giving them equal opportunities as their male counterparts, what next? I think that it is about time we all make conscious efforts to identify people with their capabilities than with their gender. If we are looking for someone to do it, let us say she cannot do it because she does not have the technical know how and the skills, but not that she cannot do it because she is a woman.

Men should learn to understand and see women as their partners in development and not some competitors. Women should also see men as same, putting in place efforts to fight for their place in society. Women should work for what is rightfully theirs and not assume that things will be done for

them because of their gender. To do this, we truly need to believe, value, and appreciate the role that women play in our communities.

We also have to embrace more affirmative actions in whatever we do or wherever we find ourselves, this will encourage people from vulnerable groups to not only be included in important issues but it will also be a step taken towards accepting these people.

Instead of just saying a happy international women’s day to your female family and friends, be different, be more supportive of their actions and encourage them to aspire higher. Talk to other people about giving equal opportunities to men and women, we need to be intentional about the process. if nothing is done, we will keep celebrating women one day in a year and spend the rest of the years doing the same things we have been doing and expecting different results. We all have roles to play in transitioning the world towards equality, lets point out discrimination, question stereotypes, the road will not be smooth and short, and it won’t happen overnight, but we need to take small steps toward that great destination. The day belongs to all of us!

This day should not be a battle between men and women about or between groups and organization about who is the stronger gender, but should rather be a celebration on women’s inclusion and equality in all forms. My story as a woman can change, your story as a woman can change, our story as women can be different. Happy International Women’s Day. CHEERS!!!