SINGLING out women and their achievements: are we over it?  Have we moved on from women’s emancipation in the early 1900s, or the post-war feminist push of the ’60s and ’70s?   More often in these enlightened times, highlighting a person’s achievement or actions because they are a woman can prove irritating. …  One would expect the gender of a successful, or notorious, person should not be a headline. So logically, is dedicating a day to women today is International Women’s Day (IWD) perhaps now obsolete?

Source: The Canberra Times

I must say that I get a trifle irritated by reminders of what we women have achieved in life.  I feel that it is very patronising.  And thank goodness it’s only once a year that we get reports such ”What Male MPs Think of their Female Counterparts” (Today Weekend edition, 7 March).  Does it even matter what male MPs think of their lady counterparts?  The bit that really riled me was this:

When asked (by the reporter Derrick Paulo) to grade how the women have done on a scale of one to 10, veteran MP Inderjit Singh (Ang Mo Kio) gave a 6.5, before adding: “My standards are very high, but 6.5 is above average.”

Well excuse me Mr Singh, the only ones that can really grade “the women” are the electorate, the very same individuals who are also evaluating you.   It’s a level playing field where wearing pants or skirts means little.  Perhaps what takes the cake is the ‘rating’ given by the ever-articulate Charles Chong:  “I would rate all of them as a ‘pass’ and above. Certainly, no one is failing and, of course, we must not rule out late bloomers.”  

My very simple point is this – if women are doing well, they deserve recognition throughout the year. 

So is the International Women’s Day obsolete?  Perhaps not.  As a trigger for real social and political change, IWD has been and can continue to be a powerful platform, in particular to improve the lives of women.  The Canberra Times offers the following shocking facts, “according to CARE Australia, 60 per cent of the world’s poorest are female, 10 million more girls than boys do not attend primary school, and violence against women kills and injures as many women as cancer.”

On a scale of 1 to 10, I think humankind has fared badly in helping improve the lifes of so many unfortunate women.  I hope Mr Paulo asks the right questions the next time round.

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