7 March 2021

International Women’s Day 8 March 2021

Wouldn’t it be lovely to live in a world where we didn’t have an International Women’s Day?

A day commemorating when women were (finally) given the right to vote, to be acknowledged as having brains capable of deciding who they’d like to run the government.

A day honouring women who have made great inroads into areas and occupations deemed to be male only.

A day highlighting ongoing disparity in work conditions, based on gender.

A day highlighting that women remain concentrated in the lowest paid jobs, often in extremely vulnerable forms of employment.

A day highlighting the role women play in leadership.

Imagine a world where people are taken on face value of the job they do, not by their gender. Where people aren’t defined by their reproductive organs?

Where job titles aren’t then defined by their gender – like a male nurse, a female doctor, a female engineer, a male secretary, a female electrician.

Where occupations are taken up by people who feel a calling to that profession, not by a list of jobs suitable for people of whatever gender?

A world where a person is paid for the job they do, with no mention of their gender. At all.

Imagine if, once a year, we had an International Day of People, when we acknowledge that our past wasn’t the best, but isn’t it great that we finally achieved the end to inequality?

Of course – there’s a fair bit of work still to do. Once we get women on an equal footing to men, we need to sort out the other areas – race, gender diversity, disability, and more.

Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make a start.

Happy International Women’s Day to all on 8 March. And roll on when it gets replaced with the International Day of People.

Where we don’t have ‘quotas’ to meet in the workplace, to make sure the company achieves the appropriate levels of employee diversity. This percentage women, that percentage indigenous, that percentage gay.

Where everyone is given the right to a safe work environment, are not judged and treated differently because of their gender, their ethnicity, their sexual identity. Just their ability to do the work required.