International Women's Day

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights" Gloria Steinem

This year, more than any other, I find myself using this day to take stock. It is, perhaps, with a weary heart that I find ever more reasons to believe that this day, Women's Day, matters.  My beloved country, Australia, seems to be going backwards, not forwards in terms of women's rights.  Tony Abbott, the lack of women in parliament, the failure of Mary Wooldridge to be pre-selected for the Victorian safe seat of Stonnington and the ongoing lack of adequate and appropriate maternity and childcare support are reminders of how far we have to go.  It is tempting to look at the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and think that it's all too hard. Or that it doesn't matter, because mostly we live in nice houses with nice families and nice jobs. But it does matter and if we stick together and keep talking and agitating and pushing for change; if we keep supporting the good leaders and stop supporting the bad; if we say yes to equal pay; yes to maternity leave; yes to the collective - maybe, just maybe when I sit down to write this post next year it will be with heartfelt joy that we have collectively move just a little bit closer to where we want to be.