INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day (IWD) remains one of the most powerful days on the calendar.
That power was coursing through the room at Nixon’s on Friday morning when the Gawler community gathered to champion women and continue the push for equality.
Packed tables listened intently as Dr Naomi Rutten detailed her story and how she came to be the successful role model she is today.
That story was fraught with outside judgement, physical, emotional and sexual abuse and general defiance of the odds.
Those odds are warped, though, as the deck remains stacked against women.
Ms Rutten relayed some concering facts centered around young people, and it became clearer and clearer that we live in a society where equal opportunity is still but a pipe dream.
For every Naomi Rutten that is able to overcome this adversity, it is terrifying to imagine the number of those that could not.
IWD has often been met with ignorant retorts in the past of “what about International Men’s Day?” (which does exist) – claiming that equality should dictate that everyone be treated the same.
That notion of treating everyone the same equalling equality would make sense if people were all starting from the same position.
The reality, though, is entirely different.
The gender pay gap is still an enormous problem, domestic violence continues to be prevalent despite the work of passionate community groups, and further to that a section of the public remains hell bent on not attempting to change behaviours.
Many in the advocacy realm would argue that days like IWD are not necessarily the solution, but more a step in the right direction towards encouraging public conversation about what society could do better.
It was inspiring to see so many people in the room on Friday morning with a genuine care about moving in the right direction and helping each other to overcome the odds.
Those ignorant enough to make tongue-in-cheek comments about days like IWD – or indeed the Mardi Gras celebrations in the Barossa a week earlier that saw numerous comments deleted on our social pages – need to learn lessons.
Days like IWD help society see past those comments and look forwards towards a better future.
