08 Mar 2021 Lifestyle 1 comment

International Women’s Day

Meditations on International Women’s Day

“She’s got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women.” - Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899)

“She’s got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women.”
– Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899)

Some Not-so-fun Women’s Equality Facts:

Did you know that, into the mid 1970s, women were generally denied credit cards or loans in their own name? (Thank you to RBG for the role she played in changing this!) (Source: TIME)

In 2019, women made up just one quarter of parliamentarians worldwide. (Source: Womankind Worldwide)

According to the UN, women make up more than two-thirds of the world’s 796 million illiterate people. Relatedly, rural girls attend school in far fewer numbers than their male counterparts. (Source)

Closer to home: 

In the past year, women have left the workforce in greater numbers than men due to the pandemic. According to NPR, nearly 3 million women left their jobs between March and September 2020 (compared to 1.7 million men). In September 2020 alone, 850,000 women left their jobs. Why is this so? Experts suspect it is related to the gender pay gap — “when couples have to take an economic decision, because women typically earn less, they are the ones who take the step back.” (Source)

I share these facts not to shame or point the finger, but to illuminate. 

I have been very lucky in my own experiences, sharing classrooms and work offices with large numbers of women. But this certainly is not always the case. 

I hope that, in light of International Women’s Day, we all take time to reflect on the ways in which gender gaps affect our lives, whatever field or social circle we run in. 

Lots of love x

Further Reading:

Here is a short list of relevant articles I came across while pulling stats for this post. Obviously, there are countless other great sources out there. Trigger warning: the majority of these articles discuss sexual and domestic violence.