Happy International Women’s Day as women all around the world celebrate the large and small gains we have made towards being granted identity status, equality, reducing violence against women and children, improvement in healthcare for our families and access to education to name a few.
I remind myself of the quote by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich “well behaved women seldom make history”, which is a wonderful play with words, however, as I understand it, is Thatcher’s ‘tribute to the silent work of ordinary people’ (wikipedia). And isn’t this sentiment relevant in these times? It will be the silent work of ordinary people, not only women, coming together to organize and organize some more, to push forward, to challenge, to not remain silent.
So, yes, today is a wonderful day to remember and celebrate all the work of the women who have gone before me who have fought for the rights I have today and to understand that as our world grows smaller, conversations including intersectional theory will become more important. To inform my thinking in this I am happy to say I have three fabulous daughters, one of whom particularly is my mentor. She even accompanied me on the Vancouver Women’s March a few weeks ago. So, today is also a wonderful day to acknowledge and celebrate all the women and girls who follow us, who are our future and our hope!