Who Run The World? Girls.

Today is International Women’s Day, which means today is the day we get to celebrate women. It seems odd to some that there is no ‘men’s day’, but this day was originally ‘International Women’s Working Day’, a day used when it made its first appearance in 1909 in remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies Garment’s Union. There was need for the women’s day when in Germany in 1914, women were finally given the right to vote.

International Women’s Day isn’t about having a day to belittle men – it’s a day to celebrate being a woman and to remember all those before us did so that we may be where we are today. Without those incredible women in history (lest we forget the Suffragettes) I wouldn’t be able to voice my opinions – nor be educated enough to do so. The first recorded celebration of the day in the UN was in the ‘International Women’s Year’ in 1975. Since then, it’s been held every year on March the 8th across the world in the countries where women’s right are as equal as possible to men’s.

To me the day means I get to learn more about the women who have shaped the world to become the way it is today. From women forgotten throughout history, to women who grace our screens day in and day out; those that make a different affect the teenage population of girls in sometimes the best way possible. A woman doesn’t have to be a ‘role model’ to normal standards to be inspiring. That’s what International Women’s Day means to me. Despite only really celebrating it these past two years (unfortunately I was unaware of it), this day means I get to be aware of the inspiring women who made it acceptable for me to express my views.

But today isn’t only about the women in the media or in history. Today is about the women you don’t always consider – the mothers who make life. The women in your everyday whose names you remember – because you remember it for a reason.

I hope that more women look to Marie Curie or Katherine Johnson or Mae Jemison or Valentina Tereshkova or Rosalind Franklin for inspiration in the sciences. I hope that more women look to Sandra Bullock or Dorothy Dandridge or Katherine Bigelow or Frances Marion or Gina Rodriguez or Lucy Lui in film. For the aspiring Michelle Obamas and Theresa Mays. I hope that pop culture springs us more inspiring women. And I hope that they spring us more inspiring men too like Mahershala Ali.

International Women’s Day only confirms what I know. Being a woman has been tough but I’m thankful for those who have fought the battle for me. I’m proud to be a woman, and hopefully International Women’s Day can make you proud, too.