International Women's Day is not an invitation to play politics with women's issues

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a great idea — in theory. Why not set aside a moment each year to highlight both the historical and present-day circumstances that impact women’s lives? If used properly, it could do some good.

But the problem with international-anything-day is that the plights and progress of historically disenfranchised people vary dramatically throughout the world. Yes, global citizens have plenty of shared values and many of the same end-goals, but the advancements happening (or not happening) in one community will often be different in the neighbouring town, city or country — and certainly different from what’s happening continents over. A woman’s life here in Britain will not reflect her counterpart in Mexico, Saudi Arabia or China.

IWD could be used to target our time and attention towards the very serious problems women still face

Perhaps if we were better at acknowledging these rates of progress, calendar staples like IWD could be used to target our time and attention towards the very serious problems women still face: domestic violence, sexual assault, political suppression and lack of basic reproductive healthcare, to name a few.