Editor’s Note: Let’s Just Cancel Women’s Day Because Society Doesn’t Really Respect Women (Or Like Them)!
What do we do with Women's Day gifts, flowers and wishes when we still have to fight for equal rights?
International Women’s Day is celebrated annually to remind us of the women’s rights movement and to highlight women’s issues like gender equality, reproductive rights and violence against women among other things. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day set by the United Nations is – For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment. But as the Managing Editor of Hauterrfly, I say it’s time we cancel Women’s Day because as a society we don’t really like women or care about them.
I’m sure you’re wondering why I say what I say. The truth is that Women’s Day is the day when all men’s rights activists gather to dilute the conversation about women’s rights and empowerment by crying a river over how men’s rights are also violated and they’re not celebrated. In 2025, women still do not have reproductive rights or protection against marital rape. We are still told to dress appropriately. We still have to worry about our safety when we step out late in the night. While men worry about getting mugged when we go out at night, we worry about getting harassed, stalked, raped, murdered, mugged, trafficked and much more.
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The biggest concern for men, when they get married, is that their wives may cheat on them or ask for alimony if they ever get divorced or maybe ask them to live away from their family, but for a woman her biggest fear is dowry harassment, domestic violence, economic abuse, mental abuse, losing the right to say ‘no’ (aka marital rape), birth control sabotage, being forced to have a child even when she’s not ready, struggling with double burden, losing financial independence, being burdened with childcare responsibilities which should be shared. They fear all this apart from having to live away from their family. And yet we hear men complain about losing their freedom after marriage.
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Also Read: 5 Reasons We Want To Cancel Women’s Day, Ek Din Ki Respect Ka Kya Karen?
FYI, as per the National Family Health Survey, 32% of married women experienced physical, sexual and emotional violence between 2019-2021. And this is just the reported data. As per NFHS, 87% of married women do not even seek help after facing marital abuse. In fact, the NCW saw a 25% increase in complaints from women in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20. In 2024, 1 out of 3 women across the globe continue to face physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-intimate partner sexual violence or both at least once in their lifetime as per UN Data. The data also reveals that most violence committed against women is by their partners or husbands. On average 140 women across the globe are killed by their partner or family every single day. Economic crisis, conflicts and climate change result in a spike in gender-based violence which means women in regions that are facing these problems witness intensified crimes against them. Did you know 91% of victims of human trafficking are women? So, what exactly are we celebrating here?
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The minute a woman takes a stand for herself, she’s called a ‘bloody feminist’. Feminist seems to have become a cuss word when the fact is that women before us had to fight hard for me to be sitting here and writing this Editor’s note. I am able to write, have a career, and be a woman in a leadership position because of feminism. And it’s not just because the women of the previous generations were feminists and fought for it but because they raised their sons to be feminist allies and uplift women.
Also Read: Taliban Imposes Ban On Constructing Windows Overlooking Spaces With Women Over Privacy Concerns!
As the Managing Editor of Hauterrfly, I share a love-hate relationship with our show The Male Feminist. Do you know why? Because when a male feminist says something, people sit down and listen much more than they listen to a female feminist. I’m jealous of the fact that a woman isn’t heard as much as a man is but at the same time, I am grateful that we have men like this in our world who continue to create space for women to talk and be heard because honestly, we need it more than anything else. They force other men to listen to a woman say her piece.
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So, I want to Cancel Women’s Day because even in 2025, our society does not want to listen to women or respect them. Women’s Day is just a namesake day when women wish each other and the world wakes up from its slumber to say the same old thing about how women are shattering the glass ceiling and then goes right back to sleep. No one questions why women still have to shatter the so-called glass ceiling and prove themselves to the world time and again. Society sleeps all year, only to wake up one day to wish women for the sake of it. What do we do with your flowers, wishes and cakes when we still cannot raise our voices without being asked to shut up and go back to the kitchen? Why celebrate Women’s Day when women still have to carve their own space and respect in society and it’s not served to them on a platter like it is to women?
Also Read: From Attentive Listening To Peaceful Walks, 5 Women’s Day Gifts That Cost Nothing!
First Published: March 08, 2025 7:43 PM
