Women's Day - 6 Doable Suggestions for Enabling Women

- February 28, 2023

Come March, and the world starts preparing to celebrate International Women's Day. To honour the place of women in their lives and in the public sphere, to acknowledge them, and also perhaps to compensate for days of neglect or bullying?

The fact that we still have to have such token days to acknowledge the contribution of women says a lot about the place of women - still second citizen in most countries.

If you are a policy maker/public persona (any gender), instead of gifting women vouchers and restaurant reservations, or worse chocolates and token gifts, there are some concrete ways you can help making Women's Day an everyday celebration.

Here goes:

Make public places comfortable for women. At any time of the day, in any attire, women should be able to walk the road with her head held high. No sneers, no judgemental stares, no harassment. Just an equal right to be at public places, whether a park, a pub or a cinema hall.
Support your own women. Share household chores. Listen to your wife/sister/daughter/mother when she shares her thoughts. Do not rush to offer solutions, just listen.
At work, take sexual harassment cases seriously - like you would take a case of perjury or fraud. Have a speedy process of complaint redressal. Don't allow any employee to judge the complainant.
Encourage women to share thoughts, ideas, suggestions on how every day can be Women's Day. You will be surprised to hear a lot of constructive, doable suggestions.
Watch your own behaviour for casual sexism and misogyny.
It is not easy to wash away years of conditioning overnight. Be your own sentry. Keep checking yourself when you judge another woman.
Hold women equally accountable for any wrongdoing. Do not let them off easily saying, "Ohh, she's just a woman, poor thing." She is equally culpable for punishment. Equality comes from both ends.