Come Women’s Day and the social media would be flooded with women-centric messages – posts glorifying women, posts celebrating womanhood, posts calling for women empowerment. A day in a year to talk about the importance of women. A day for selfies and hashtags and social media posts. A day for retail discounts for women and celebration dinners. But that hardly sums up what Women’s Day is all about!

How did Women’s Day come into existence?

The International Women’s Day has been around for over a hundred years. Though it would be hard to believe in today’s times, women neither had voting rights nor any representation in the government just over a century ago. The Women’s Day came into effect to address this issue and to give women the right to hold a public office and for employment rights equal to men.

Why is the day still relevant?

Even though most countries now have equal voting rights for women (Saudi Arabia was the latest to do this), and representation in the government, the statistics are still skewed in the favor of the men. Only 19 women are heads of the state, the rest are all men, wherever you go.

However, over the years, the focus shifted from just the right to employment and voting to other pressing issues pertaining women. Domestic and sexual violence against women, gender pay gap, financial dependence, etc. are issues that are very relevant in today’s world. Equality is still a distant dream for women all over the world. And even though the women in developed countries would seem to be better off compared to those in an underdeveloped nation, they too have to deal with a deep-rooted gender bias even today!

Closer home the picture is even bleaker. It starts with female foeticide and ends in rape. The skewed sex ratio, the increasing cases of domestic violence and marital rape, the molestation that starts with eve teasing, and

Prachi Tulankar

Author: Prachi Tulankar Prachi is a professional content writer. An Electrical engineer, she has worked in the software industry and also as a trainer in cognitive skills enhancement before turning to content writing. She enjoys good movies, good food, and above all, good books. It was her passion for reading that eventually led her to start a career in writing. She believes that you can never be too tired in life as long as there’s coffee and never too sad in life as long as there’s dark chocolate. She believes in the simple pleasures of life and knows that a little love can make everything better! She can be contacted by email on prachi.tulankar@gmail.com