Today was International Women’s Day.
A day celebrating women has taken place since the early 1900s, but it hasn’t been a global or united movement since then. Throughout the last 100 years, women have been honored and recognized in various ways in various countries.
And while there has been much progress around the world for women’s rights, equality, and opportunity, it hasn’t come quickly. It hasn’t been linear. And it hasn’t been without major setbacks.
Let’s take a look at how women were treated in 1974.
Women in the United States weren’t able to get a credit card without the signature of a man until 1974. Yes, after man landed on the moon. Yes, after 18-year-olds could vote. It was a mark of great progress alongside the advancements in birth control and women’s health. Today in the United States, women can get credit cards without the consent of a man and without government interference.
In Afghanistan in 1974, men and women had equal rights before the law. In 1992 after a political party shift, a decree was made that began to limit women in society in incredulous ways. As this ideal spread, limitations increased and oppression and violence against women grew. Today, Afghan women are not only banned from working or going to school, they are banned from showing their faces in public at all. What began as house arrest has quickly escalated, and women are no longer allowed to show their faces or speak at all in public under Taliban rule.
As a woman in America, I have seen and studied the progress of women. I walk into museums with exhibits devoted to women engineers, inventors, and artists. But as a woman in ministry, I’m very aware of the way women are perceived because of limiting political or religious beliefs.
Even though I still experience some discrimination because of my gender, the progress I see makes me hopeful for more. But not all women around the world have seen the same progress. If you are reading this now, I can assume you have similar freedoms and opportunities that I do. And if this is the case, I invite you to use your voice for those who can’t.
In the Unites States in 2025, I invite you to speak out in public for equality, knowing that women in Afghanistan in 2025 will face jail, stoning, rape, or death for doing so.
You don’t need to become a feminist activist to do this. You can share the information simply, like I am here. You can commit to learning more about other cultures and the ways women exist in them. Or, heck, why not become an activist?! Choose however your voice, abilities, money, connections, and time are best used for the advancement of all people everywhere.
Today was International Women’s Day. And I’ll keep celebrating women tomorrow.
