Today is International Women’s Day.

As the official website states, it is « a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future » and in some countries it is a national holiday.

I’ve decided on this occasion to talk about something closely related to women : gender equality. What is gender equality ? Gender equality is a human right. Lately, we’ve been hearing these two words a lot. Today, a gender equality campaign erased from advertising and magazine covers on International Woman's Day, to hammer home a powerful point: We're not there. But this isn’t enough. Many female celebrities are starting to stand out to support the cause, like Beyoncé, Cara Delevingne and Emma Watson with her HeForShe campaign. And guess what? Gender equality is about men, too.

This was just a tiny example, but it makes you think about all those little things and prejudices that we (mostly unaware) apply to genders every day. We start from creating specific toys for boys and girls to differentiating wages basing on what’s under someone’s underwear.

Sounds still unconvincing? Let’s move to Africa countries. Here, in certain cases women are forbidden to drive and have limited rights (divorce and education...). I won’t even start with the physical and sexual violence. « In many parts of the world, it's more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier. » Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the head of the U.N. Women.

The sad thing is that gender inequality often mixes up with other kinds of discrimination, like racism or homo/transphobia. Fighting gender inequality means also fighting all those assumptions that prevent us from living in a world that puts each human being on the same level regardless of their sexuality, gender, skin color and so on. Sounds familiar? To me, this recalls basic human rights.

This is really a complex topic as you can see, and it’s also quite delicate. Here are some useful sites you can visit if you want to know more :

International Women's Day official website

U.N. Women

HeForShe

Not There 

I wish you all a happy Women’s day to all the beautiful Ladies out there. Have a good day and don’t forget to rock!! Be who you want to be and don’t let men treat you as if you were a dog.