International Womens Day is about more than women

It might be a controversial thing to say, but let me qualify the title. Women are human beings who make up the majority of the world’s population. They are the part of creation and a part of what reflects the image of God to us. When God created humans, he created them in his image, male and female he created them, and it was good. So when we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are celebrating humanity and women’s special participation in that mirror which reflects our creator to us.

Of course the day is about more than that, because humanity (and sadly the more male end of humanity) has failed women. This is true in the northern hemisphere, whether because of the continuation of sexual violence or simply blocking board room access. There are a host of other reasons we are failing women too. But more needs to be said about women internationally, and perhaps particularly in the southern hemisphere.

If you read my Twitter feed this morning - and I follow a number of liberal feminists (whether female, male or gender non-specific) - you would be forgiven for thinking that they scorn the ‘crass’ idea that we need a special day on which to remember women. Women need to be remembered every day, they say, and when they are, we will no longer need to celebrate some special day. Inasmuch as I agree with the fact that women should be upheld as image-bearers of God every day, with all that this entails, I do rather like the idea that we take a special opportunity to focus our thinking in one very specific direction once a year. But because the day is an international day, it is about the whole of created order, and this means thinking about not just our near neighbours, but also those further afield.
Globally, according to UN statistics, one in three women has been beaten, forced to have sex or abused in some other way in her lifetime. Irrespective of religion, region, culture, education or ethnicity, domestic violence is the largest form of abuse around the globe. Sickeningly, it is estimated that more than two million girls undergo or are forced to undergo genital mutilation per year, which amounts to one girl every 15 seconds.

The global slave trade is fed by between 700,000 and 4,000,000 women sold into prostitution each year. And finally, the UN stats show that “women between the ages of 15 and 44 are more likely to be maimed or die as a result of male violence than through cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war combined”. If Christian Aid is right, then women own only 1% of the world’s property and “perform 66% of the world’s work yet earn only 10% of the income”.

So next time your pastor makes a big deal about male headship (and I am not saying it isn’t an issue) without mentioning this horror, it might be worth taking him aside and asking him what he has done today to stop this travesty from happening.

I am told that Jesus’ teaching and the behaviour of the early church towards women was some of the most radical positive behaviour the Mediterranean and near Middle Eastern culture had seen. The gospel lifts up those that the world does not. Let us imitate Jesus in that way too and whether we are women or men, let us celebrate the humanity of women, and seek to help re-humanise how women are treated globally together.

The statistics above were taken from Christian Aid here, and from Restored, an evangelical charity working to end violence against women around the world. I commend Restored to you and hope you take the time to read what they are doing here.