Women's Equality Day 2016

Days like today remind us why feminism and equality are issues so relevant and important in our time. No matter how frequently the impact of inequality is denied in 2016, the fact is, today marks just 96 years since women were given the right to vote in the USA. Women have only been viewed as having an equal right to vote to their male counterparts, for less than a century. In a year which sees the potential rise of the first American female president, this could not be more pertinent.

What can be a bit troubling about terms like ‘feminism’ and ‘women’s equality day’ is that they can sound hypocritical. How can you stand for equality when you seemingly exclude anyone who identifies as non-female?

But that’s where there is a misunderstanding. Feminism is ALL about equality between the sexes, and extremists who don’t believe all gender identities should have equal rights, are exactly that: extremists.

So let’s take a look at the people who have fought for equality this year, and the amazing things they’ve achieved:

Andy Murray is a self-professed feminist, and has spoken openly about equality in tennis. He garnered a rapture of appreciation at this year’s Olympic games, and not just for retaining his singles title. Whether or not reporter John Inverdale meant to exclude women’s sport from his summary, when he told Murray he was the first person to win two gold medals for tennis, Andy quickly reminded him that the Williams sisters both have twice as many medals as him. The time for not counting women’s sporting efforts to be as important as men’s is well and truly OVER.

Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of Karma Nirvana, and survivor herself of forced marriage and honour based abuse, was one of the advisors for the BBC’s Murdered by my Father. Despite receiving death threats, she continues to run her charity, and assist projects like the BBC program, and has been campaigning for equality since 1993. Murdered by my Father was widely praised, especially for its realism, which Sanghera was able to help with because of her charity’s work. Karma Nirvana supports both male and female victims of forced marriage and abuse, and Sanghera continues to push the government for reform on these issues.

Having already stood and said to the world “this is what a feminist looks like” this year, President Obama used his 55th birthday to gift the world with his own essay on feminism published on Glamour.com, which you can read in full here. It’s a powerful, succinct piece of work, which not only speaks of what work must be done, but how far we have come in terms of equality. Highlights (and there are many) include the plea: “We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive, that criticizes our daughters for speaking out and our sons for shedding a tear.” And his rousing qualification, “And yes, it’s important that their dad is a feminist, because now that’s what they expect of all men”.

Perhaps most importantly, he remembers to state that feminism and equality are intrinsically linked, “That’s what twenty-first-century feminism is about: the idea that when everybody is equal, we are all more free” – but that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the coolest President the US has ever had.