Reported by Jamada Miss Kalinda, Student of Law and Human Rights Activist

As a young man, I stand on the shoulders of great women, I have many examples of women that I admire and look up to, not because of their superior positions in my career, education, and family but because of the way they lead with unquestionable and genuine passion, incredible resilience, patience, and foresight, these are things that I have seen specifically in the women that have mentored and supported my life’s Journey so far.

The background to the stories of most of these women is decades of oppression and structural inequality that they and many before them had to endure and fight. When my grandmother tearfully tells the story of how she would have to wake up past midnight to serve dinner to a drunk husband, or how millions of women were breadwinners years ago because they tilted the soil and planted the gardens for food, that is the backdrop to the stories of women; disenfranchisement, secondary citizenship, and outright disregard for their potential and sacrifice to their families and nations.

I said background as if such cracks of oppression have ceased to exist, but they have not, they now live in the form of unequal pay, reproductive health decisions taken by those not affected by their implications, and inaccessibility to basic structural necessities that are essential for the further development of women. I am a young man empowered by many women, so I have no doubt in my mind about their innate potential because I have witnessed it firsthand.

It is our responsibility as young men to support women within our communities for they give so much to ensure our bare existence that we owe them so much more, but it isn’t for what they give us that we should respect and support them, it is for what they are; partners, colleagues and at many times leaders that point us in the right direction. We should also never downplay the role of men and society in guaranteeing the further development of a long-disadvantaged group within our community and should strive to ensure that our communities come to the realization of women’s strength and contribution to society.

Women’s day is a true reminder that as far as we have come, we have so much work to do to ensure that women are respected for their innate power. A woman that does as much as another person deserves as much as that person, unfortunately, this is not the case as many consider women to have fewer responsibilities.

Many aspects of the legal framework against women have changed over time, but these changes rarely reflect within the community. There is much more work to be done, work in empowerment, sensitization, and promotion of the rights of women, to be looked at as equals within our society, may this serve as a reminder to everyone, that we all in one way or another, stand on the shoulders of great women.

“But if the women gather together here—the Boeotian women, the Peloponnesian women, and ourselves—together we’ll be able to rescue Greece.” Lysistrata.