Who Cares About International Women's Day?

On March 8, International Women’s Day (IWD) will be marked around the world with large scale events to celebrate the advancement of women and to remind us of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that real equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of our lives. I'm quite sure there will be no events, large or small, held in this place to mark the occasion. I'm sure there will be no public statements of acknowledgment or solidarity from the politicians, certainly none from the church, none from the op-ed writers of the local newspapers. I'm certain no local news editors are sending reporters out to interview surviving Bahamian suffragists nor any of the feminist activists of our generation, there will be no special supplements about IWD, or the women's movement in the Bahamas, or in the world, no coverage of our advancements or our continuing struggles. I'm sure not one civic leader, not one business leader, not one religious leader, will give IWD a thought, much less a word. Bahamian women will be silent too. The global women's movement goes unacknowledged by most Bahamians. The only acknowledgment made in my country might be these poor words I write tonight in my little blog that no one reads. But I hold out hope that we'll hear the voices of some good writers I know, speaking up with me in celebration and support of the global women's movement on March 8 in their esteemed blogs. In the spirit of Nico Bethel's "Day of Absence", I challenge us all to imagine a world without the women's movement. Actually, it might look a lot like present-day Nassau.