International Women’s Day

On March 8, people around the country will come together to celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 in Canada. It’s a global day organized

annually that recognizes and celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.

While the U.N.’s “digitALL” theme underscores how the fight for gender equality has evolved in the 21st century, celebrations around the world are also focused on longstanding issues including poverty and violence.

A World Health Organization report in 2021 found that nearly one in three women worldwide is subjected to physical or sexual violence during her lifetime, an issue that ties in with women’s economic opportunities, access to sex education and reproductive rights.

In recent years, there has also been a push to make IWD more inclusive of racialized women as well as of transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, since the early movement was largely focused on cisgender white women fighting for voting rights.

While IWD is a chance to raise awareness on rights gaps, organizers also use the day to celebrate progress and the achievements of individual women.

“The world’s crises do not impact equally, let alone fairly. The disproportionate impacts on women’s and girls’ rights are well-documented yet still neglected, when not ignored outright.”

– Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s Secretary General

As CEO of the Global Fund for Women, Musimbi Kanyoro works to support women and their ideas so they can expand and grow. She introduces us to the Maragoli concept of “isirika” — a pragmatic way of life that embraces the mutual responsibility to care for one another — something she sees women practicing all over the world. And she calls for those who have more to give more to people working to improve their communities. “Imagine what it would look like if you embraced isirika and made it your default,” Kanyoro says. “What could we achieve for each other? For humanity?” Let’s find out — together.

We’re raising our girls to be perfect, and we’re raising our boys to be brave, says Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code. Saujani has taken up the charge to socialize young girls to take risks and learn to program — two skills they need to move society forward. To truly innovate, we cannot leave behind half of our population, she says. “I need each of you to tell every young woman you know to be comfortable with imperfection.”