International Women’s Day (C) Pexels

On Thursday March 8, we celebrated International Women’s Day. This was a day to celebrate women, their achievements and the struggles they have gone through, in the fight to achieve gender equality  Elle-Mae reports

Even though there has been a huge spike in activities supporting women’s rights over the past few years, International Women’s Day is not a new phenomenon. Since 1977, the United Nations have marked this date as a focus day for celebrating women’s rights, and world peace in terms of gender equality.

Over the month of March, there have been many events going on in and around London, such as; Women of the World Festival, an immersive Suffragette walk and a women’s march, joined by thousands of women and men. London South Bank University also held a women’s week, in which many talks took place to discuss different struggles that women go through daily.

On the big day itself, our JLDN reporter Isla Russell attended a women’s day breakfast, filled with panels of inspirational women, discussing how they established themselves in a world heavily dominated by men. One of the panel members, was Serina Guen, founder and CEO of Suitcase magazine. She said: “It was so nice to do a panel of all women today because it’s a very rare occasion.”

Isla also attended a talk at LSBU’s Keyworth Centre, presented by The Periodical Diary. This group are a charity based in Southwark, who aim to provide sanitary products for homeless women. Two spokeswomen discussed how the charity try to approach the issue of feminine hygiene through government lobbying, donations and education.

Many other women Isla met discussed how they would like to see more gender equality in the workplace and in universities in terms of lecturers and executive staff. One student also discussed how at some point in the future there could be a time where we don’t have to have one day to celebrate women’s success. It will just become the norm to celebrate women’s achievements alongside men’s. I’m sure with more campaigning and education on the topic, gender equality will eventually become the norm.