Why Should Women’s Day Be Celebrated?

           From the very beginning of the month of March or even before that we begin to increasingly hear the words – Women’s Day. Over the past few days I have been asked by an overwhelming amount of people (read men) as to why Women’s Day should be celebrated. Notice that the title of this article reads ‘Why Should Women’s Day Be Celebrated?’ rather than ‘Should Women’s Day Be Celebrated?’. So you get the gist – I am going to tell you why it should be celebrated.

Let me begin with what I have been asked (for those of you who still haven’t realised – read the title of the article). I will mention some of the arguments put forward by those who asked me this question. They think that celebrating Women’s Day is unfair to men and that it goes against the original cause. They think that women are given preferential treatment and showered with gifts and attention and that they would never be able to enjoy the same. Kindly note that their concern here is not the fact that women are celebrated and honoured on a particular day when it should have been an everyday practice, but rather that they themselves do not have a day for the same. But even that is a question nevertheless. A very few also argued that women need to be treated equally and with respect everyday and that there is no need for a particular day for it. I appreciate their thoughtfulness (assuming that their concern is genuine). Now let me now tell you what I think.

I will not go into the history of Women’s Day or how it came into existence (Those who are curious may take the help of Google). I also do not need to elaborate about the discrimination faced by women and atrocities against them. There are hundreds and thousands of examples that prove the same and we have all more or less seen or heard about such things. And they continue on a daily basis (reading the newspaper will give you enough examples). So I will jump straight to what I have to say.

I think it is not the celebration but its purpose that people fail to see. The purpose of Women’s Day is not just to honour them on a particular day but rather to create awareness among the public. Day by day, the world is becoming a more and more dangerous place for women. The reasons are too many to name and I will not go into that here. So having a particular day helps to bring more organisation purpose and focus towards these problems. Let me give you an example so that you can fully appreciate this.  We celebrate World Environment Day on June 5th every year. We plant trees and conduct a variety of other activities as part of this celebration. The sole purpose is to draw more attention towards the environmental problems. It is without doubt understood that we are to care for our environment but keeping a special day every year drives home the point and will give it due emphasis. Each year we see that more and more people participate in these events and if there has been even a minor change in the thinking and behaviour of these individuals, the purpose is served. It is the very same with Women’s Day.

Something else that I would like to point out here is that Women’s Day is celebrated the very same way as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Children’s Day, Teacher’s Day, etc. are celebrated. The reason why we celebrate these days and appreciate these people is that sometimes though we have it in us to be good to those who play an important part in our lives, we tend to take them for granted. So this day will let us introspect on our behaviour towards them and improve our relationship with them. How is it that we don’t hear people complaining about these? It should just be considered as a day to let the women in our lives know how important they are to us and honour them. All this is done never to put men down as they wrongly seem to assume, but to bring equal opportunities for women.

Now about celebrating International Men’s Day (if you don’t know, go read about it); I am all for it. However, the point to be noted here is that it is a majority of men itself who have no clue that such a day exists. It is not that men do not face problems but their extent and the type of problems are different. It is usually women, who take a lot of initiative to celebrate Women’s Day because they know that it is a good opportunity to highlight the issues they are facing so I think men should also take initiative. 

“Some women being empowered does not prove the patriarchy is dead. It proves that some of us are lucky.” – Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist)​