#ChooseToChallenge for Medium Writers
#ChooseToChallenge: do more than take a selfie this International Women’s Day #IWD2021
Hands up who’s wanting to use their writing skills to make an impact? What am I saying… of course you do.
The 8th of March 2021 marks International Women’s Day (IWD). The annual celebration of the women throughout history whose achievements have paved the way for the world we live in today. A global invitation for willing participants to raise awareness about women’s equality and fundraise for female-focused charities.
The beauty of IWD is that its active information sharing and rich cultural experience can be a catalyst to empowering further change, which can be achieved through lobbying for accelerated equal gender opportunities.
Its own website exists solely to bolster these ongoing missions and accompanies each annual celebration with a distinct theme or prompt for participants to base it around if they so wish.
It’s this year’s theme that has inspired me to write this very article.
What’s the relevance of the 8th of March?
The origins of International Women’s Day date back as early as 1908 when a surge of 15,000 women garment workers — many of whom were immigrants — took to the streets of New York City’s Union Square on the 8th of March to rally for their economic and political rights.
Funnily enough, despite this particular rally being held on the same date, it was of mere coincidence.
International Women’s Day was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on the 19th of March, 1911. On this day over one million women and men campaigned for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, hold public office and put an end to discrimination.
It wasn’t until the 23rd of February 1917, against the backdrop of a country exhausted by war yet populated by a surge in protest, that the first — and easily most consequential — International Women’s Day was consummated. This would also later be immortalised as the march that sparked the Russian Revolution.
Within the most widely accepted Gregorian calendar, as opposed to the ‘old’ Russian calendar used at the time, the 23rd of February was translated as the 8th of March. The historical significance of this date was the reason why it has remained the global date for International Women’s Day commemorations ever since.
This year’s theme
This year’s theme involves taking a selfie with one of your hands raised to signal that you are not only participating in International Women’s Day but actively choosing to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. This is carried out by sharing the selfie on social media platforms to raise awareness of this choice.
The idea behind this is that the more we choose to challenge what we don’t think is right, the more change we’ll see in the world as a collective.
What I admire about this is that anyone with access to a decent internet connection and the relevant device can join in, no matter where they are and what restrictions they face — like a global pandemic for instance.
As you can tell by my featured image, I am in no way opposed to doing this. This is a highly effective and fun way for others to connect whilst learning about the cultural and historical relevance of this day. I do think that we writers would be doing the world — and ourselves — a great injustice if we didn’t step up our game and attempt to take this opportunity to share stories that will educate, entertain and potentially inspire keen readers to take action in support of this day.
Now for the challenge itself…
The challenge is simple:
Write and publish one Medium story in time for the 8th of March 2021 about a woman throughout history to whom your life has directly been shaped, and — who you believe — deserves their memory to live on.
Whether it be a relative, ancestor, mentor, public figure, world leader, academic or icon, let us take this opportunity to praise women through our medium (weapon) of choice; our words.
The only rule in terms of the subject is that they have to be someone who has since departed. If you end up writing about those who have been inspired to take action off the back of the deceased woman’s efforts, then that is absolutely allowed!
Whatever your choice, all that I ask is for your subtitle to read the following: “My writing #ChooseToChallenge for International Women’s Day 2021”
If you’re struggling with prompts, why not write a letter to them letting them know what they have done has permanently engraved their mark on history for all the right reasons? What would they have liked to learn of their efforts if they were still alive to read about it?
I know there are a great number of Medium publications looking for thought-provoking work that draws the importance of women’s lives that are at risk of being lost throughout time. Take this one, for instance.
Will you fly the flag?
As a woman myself (shock horror), I firmly believe it is our duty to honour those who have devoted their lives to make ours what they are today in some way. The women instigated change by causing the ripples that have created waves within societies that would have otherwise remained still.
I now extend this invitation to you, the readers, writers and activists alike. Whether you choose to accept remains to be seen… but if you do, feel free to tag me (Rose Butcher) somewhere in it — I’d love to be one of your first reads.
I will leave you with this quote from the late and great Sylvia Pankhurst — the woman I have chosen as the subject for my own writing #ChooseToChallenge — just to light the spark.
“The profound divergences of opinion on war and peace has been shown to know no sex.”
My writing #ChooseToChallenge entry:
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