International Women’s Day

March 8th was International Women’s Day. It was first celebrated in 1975 to protest for better rights and more equality between genders.

This year's theme of women’s day was Embracing Equity. But what is equity? Equity is very similar to equality but there’s still a big difference. Equality means giving two people or groups the same things, resources, opportunities, rights, etc.… Equity means that you give the group or person different things that will help them in their particular situation and meet their individual needs to reach an equal end goal to others.

Here’s an example: A group of kids are going skiing but one of them doesn’t know how to ski. So instead, they snowboard. In the end, they don’t all have the same thing but they all reach the end goal, which is to slide down a snowy mountain on pieces of plastic.

I think this theme is really relevant and important right now. Think about it. The whole reason for International Women’s Day is equality and rights. Now try to think of a right that only men have (around here) … Hmm, there aren’t many, if any, that I can think of. That’s where equity comes in. Now that genders are mostly equal, we can change focus to making sure everyone can reach the same goal. Instead of giving everyone the exact same thing we can start to give different people different resources to meet their individual needs.

In conclusion, I think it’s important to celebrate this holiday not only to inspire change but to also look back and remember how far we’ve come. Women have gone from being treated unfairly to being respected members of society with rights. That’s impressive and kind of crazy!