The origin's of celebrating March 8th as International Women's Day can be traced back to the first decade of the last century. It was marked by protests against low wages and poor working conditions for female workers in the garment industry. This went on for a few years and after many other dates being used for the purpose, March 8th was officially declared as IWD. Considering the social conditions of those times, it did make sense to dedicate a day to women. After all, it was a highly male dominated society.
But, a lot of water has flown down the river since then. Today, there is no field which does not have women equally collaborating or competing with men. It hardly makes any sense in celebrating just one day as IWD (does it mean that the other 364 days are for men?), when they should be accorded equal status in each and every facet of life. Isn't it what the feminist movement was all about? Here is an attempt to put this all in numbers:-
International Women's Day - 0.274 % rights demanded
Feminism - 50 % (if not more)
Indian Politics/Education system - 33 %
In my view, women should refrain from celebrating any single day as their day or even asking for reservations. They were born equal and should be accorded equal rights to this world and everything that it encompasses.
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