Photos via Wikimedia Commons/Graphic by Mariko Kuroda/TheGazelle

Ideally, there shouldn't be a day or a month that exclusively highlights any gender. In an ideal society where equality prevails, there shouldn't be any discrimination against people based on their gender. Having such a day goes against that ideal by choosing people of a specific minority gender and giving them the spotlight.

Women’s Day should be like the terminator from Terminator 3. The terminator has within it the seeds that might potentially lead to the rise of machines and the destruction of the human race. Despite being the machine that helped humans, it has to destroy itself to prevent it from being the seed for the deadly robot race. Like the terminator, one of the main aims of Women's Day should be its own demise. Women's Day, despite being celebrated with all the right intentions, has within it the seeds to propagate some unwanted detrimental effects, such as the placement of women in the role of the oppressed.

Imagine a time in the future when women are completely equal to men. Imagine a time when women are paid the same, and have the same opportunities and rights as men. A day celebrating successful fights against a once strong patriarchy will only remind women of an older oppressive setting and of its oppressive powers. While it's important to remember our history, there is a danger in continuing to celebrate the successful women of that future. This celebration might cause society to form itself into groups again. It might cause women to associate themselves with oppressed women of an older society. It might transport the older power context from the past into the present. At such a time, giving young girls women role models to look up to will only propagate the idea that women are oppressed and should fight against the oppressor who, at that time in the future, might not be as potent as Women's Day suggests. In other words, using the premise that women are oppressed to justify celebrating their achievements might backfire at a time when women aren’t oppressed. Given that the continual celebration of Women's Day might start becoming more dangerous than good, we should replace it with something that doesn't have the potential to do as much harm — World Gender Day.

What is World Gender Day? It’s a day to celebrate any and all individuals who fought and continue to fight for gender equality. Why this instead of Women's Day? When we celebrate an individual or a group, we don't necessarily celebrate every aspect of them. There is always a context in which you celebrate certain select traits. For example, we celebrate Emily Dickinson for her poetry in the context of literary works and not necessarily for her bread-making skills, which she won prizes for. Similarly when we celebrate women who did or do great things, we celebrate their successful attempts at fighting the patriarchy. What they're good at, on the other hand, seems secondary. When we celebrate the victories of women achievers, we automatically set up the sides of the wars they fought in — the weak and the strong, the oppressed and the oppressor. We consequently then position the weak at the bottom and the strong at the top of the power structure. But when we celebrate individuals who fought for equality, we celebrate their cause – equality between genders. The sides that we set up in this battle are different. It’s not the oppressor vs. the oppressed, but rather a society that upholds equality vs. one that doesn’t. This brings more focus to solving the problem.

My next point tackles a controversial implication of World Gender Day. If it celebrates anyone who fights for gender equality, then it also celebrates men who fight for women. Why would we celebrate men when they already enjoy the spotlight enough? It’s like celebrating the white individuals who fought for black rights. This sounds a lot like white savior complex.

Although it does seem akin to white savior complex, I still stand by my initial claim – that we should celebrate any and every person who fights for gender equality. This just strengthens the philosophy of World Gender Day, which is to prevent clubbing together minorities and spotlighting them as the oppressed. We instead spotlight a group of individuals who, regardless of power, fight for equality.

High achievements by women within the patriarchy is different from women trying to break the patriarchy. Patriarchy is a system where the power is held by men. Note that the system isn’t designed to make it impossible for women to achieve things. It is designed only to make it hard for women to achieve things. Just because a few women slipped through it doesn’t change the fact that men were, and are still in power. When we celebrate or recognize women who were successful in their respective fields, we’re not really celebrating women who helped overthrow the patriarchy. For example, Marie Curie is no doubt awesome for having risen to the top, but she didn’t actively do anything to topple the patriarchal system. Seeing more women get to the top today might just be a result of increasing job opportunities, a rising population or a selection bias in the media. Women might still be facing greater difficulties getting there compared to men.

You might now want to say, “Sachith, Marie Curie got to the top and inspired other women to fight and get there too.” Sure, she inspired more people to get to the top, but notice that anyone who tries to get there is still fighting to do so. If women get to the top and do nothing to topple the hierarchy or reduce the gap, there will always be minorities at the bottom who will struggle to rise. Heroines inspire more women to fight within the system to get to the top, but not necessarily to actively topple it.

In our attempts to further the feminist goal of equality, I suggest we focus more on those who fight the oppressive effects of the patriarchy. This way, the spotlight then shifts from the oppressed in a patriarchal society to establishing equality.