* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Kate Bishop is a Women’s Rights Adviser within the Policy and Campaigns Division of ActionAid UK. Her work at ActionAid focuses on making ending violence against women a foreign policy priority for the UK Government and placing gender equality at the heart of the UK’s strategy to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals. The opinions expressed are her own. Thomson Reuters will host an International Women's Day follow-the-sun live blog on March 8, 2011.
On March 8, I’ll be joining women worldwide in celebrating 100 years of women’s activism for equality, and putting down a marker for the next 100.
I’ll be Getting Lippy in support of women fighting life and death battles for equality and rights in countries such as Bangladesh and Uganda by sending a message of solidarity to them – join me by sending your own message.
I’ll also be helping reignite the inequality debate in the UK by joining the EQUALS campaign’s dancing soultrain for equality in Jubilee Gardens (under the London Eye). Come down for 3 p.m. GMT and join me, Annie Lennox, Paloma Faith and a host of other great women and men!
On top of that, and maybe most exciting of all, I’ll be hosting some extraordinary Afghan women politicians who are at the forefront of the fight for women’s rights.
They’ll be meeting the UK’s new International Violence against Women Champion, Lynne Featherstone at ActionAid’s offices, and sharing their experiences of facing violence as a trade off for participating in the political life of their country.
The centenary of International Women’s Day on Tuesday is a moment to remind ourselves that in no country is gender equality yet a reality. In many countries International Women’s Day is a public celebration of women - in some countries, it’s even a national holiday, but in the UK we don’t really mark it.
Perhaps we think we don’t need it anymore; that the fight for gender equality is over in the UK.
Not only is that not true, but it misses the point. International Women’s Day is about women’s equality with men everywhere. It’s a moment to show solidarity with women fighting life and death battles over equality and rights wherever they are.
At the same time it’s a moment to recognise that actually there’s no single country where women and men are equal, and to reignite the debate wherever we are.
Together, we can shape the next 100 years of activism for equality by engaging with the struggle of women around the world and understanding it as our struggle too. Because if we’re not equal everywhere, we’re not equal anywhere.
