📅 Thought for today:

‘Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.’

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

#thoughtfortoday #iwd2022 #culture #celebration #stepbystep

It is International Women’s Day today and I’m thinking about the women I know and celebrating them, recognising the extra work it has taken them to achieve their goals due to our culture.

I did want to choose a quote that is relevant to the mission of IWD, which started in 1911:

“Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.”

What I observed, as I searched my usual sources for reliable quotes to use today is that a great many of the quotes were by men, belittled women, assumed that a women’s role is as a love interest for men, were misogynistic, some were thoroughly unpleasant, the list goes on.

In fact, I would say my usual sources were a major disappointment. Is it too much to ask for a quote that is by a woman and celebrates women for being women?

Is it too much to ask to stop propagating quotes from “a different time”?

I am not one for ignoring the past, so long as we learn from it and change (and improve).

Step-by-step we can change our culture for the better, even in the face of multiple global crises.