International Women's Day? What's all the fuss? #IWD2018 #Womanchester #RadicalManchester
So, 8 March is International Women's Day 2018. So, what's all the fuss about?
Well, this year, more than most others, there are serious reasons to 'make a fuss'. What a time we're living in.
2018 sees the 100th anniversary of the first women getting the vote (ok, so it was only women who owned property but it was a start, right?). The Suffragette movement was founded in my home town by local visionary Emmeline Pankhurst and has always been marked and celebrated here. This year though, we ramped up the celebrations several notches. And quite right. In my town of birth, Oldham, a mill town in Lancashire in the north of England, we're campaigning and fundraising to erect a monument in recognition of Annie Kenny, a local mill girl turned suffragette who joined Christabel Pankhurst in her campaigns, storming political rally's and even marching to Number 10 in her shawl and cloggs (the common attire of mill women of the time). Annie would become the only working class woman to hold a senior position in the Women's Social and Political Union.
Up to date, and women the globe over are stepping up and stepping in to the light to share their stories of empowerment and disempowerment, as the world continues to recognise and share the #MeToo, #WeAreNow, #ImWithHer hashtags. Each woman that steps up and steps out, gives power and voice to the next.
Meanwhile though, our sisters across the world are still trapped, mistreated, abused, suppressed and living in poverty and horror.
So, should we be making a fuss this International Women's Day? Damn right we should. And let's make it loud and proud. We owe it to our courageous ancestors who led the way, clearing a path for us to shine our light. We owe it to our sisters, daughters and other young women and girls following on behind us, to do the same for them. To share what our forebears did for us, and to continue to build a legacy for them so that they never need hashtags like #MeToo. And, we owe it to our sisters around the world who have no voice, to speak up on their behalf.
The Dalai Lama said "Western women will save the world." What I believe he meant, is that we Western women have a platform and a power that most women don't. Let's not waste it!
Will you embrace the colour purple with me in celebration of what it means to be a woman in 2018?
Join me, and other fabulous women, LIVE on my Facebook page this Wednesday 7 March 2018 as we prepare for International Women's Day at http://facebook.com/batshtcrazy.co
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