What is International Women’s Day?
International Women’s Day celebrates women and girls, and all we bring to the world.
Celebrated once a year, International Women’s Day is dedicated to all the people in our lives who are living in female bodies. For all who experience life from the point of view and role of “woman”, this is our day.
Ever since the extinction of matriarchal societies, history has tended to favor men, reserving appreciation and recognition primarily for accomplishments and energies brought by people in male bodies.
There have been exceptions, of course, big-spirited women with sizable spheres of influence. Many women, from Joan of Arc to Harriet Tubman, are household names and history book legends.
Still, other women from history are less well-known but no less remarkable to ponder once we learn of their lives. In the arts, there have been many women who burned brightly enough to shine in a man’s world, defying the odds of their time to birth their contributions to culture.
Some personal favorites of history and culture are the Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola, the Christian mystic, herbalist, and composer Hildegard of Bingen, and the Pharaoh Hatshepsut who ruled Egypt for many peaceful and culturally rich decades.
More importantly, perhaps, the ordinary women of our lives have a soft force of power, even if our emotions, experiences, and life stories fall outside the narrow definitions of what deserves acclaim (according to the bias we all are conditioned with).
We women are here, bringing our gifts, whether we are seen and appreciated, or not. And though we might not be publicly celebrated, nor valued in our essential natures in the same overt ways as men have been historically, there has always been love for women, too. This is a day to remember our collective love for women.
When is International Women’s Day 2024?
March 8th is the official day every year for focusing celebration energies towards the females in our lives, past, present, and future. This year, we celebrate women on Friday, March 8th, 2024.
The purpose of International Women’s Day is to open up the lens of collective awareness to value the feminine more. We have all been almost single-mindedly focused on the value of the masculine pole of experience.
With awareness softened and opened to a broader perspective, we can recognize the facts of women’s role in shaping society, the arts, families, and history. We can also consider the world more from the point of view of female-bodied beings.
Patriarchy hurts both men and women with toxic ideas about what is valuable and what isn’t. We all have male and female energies in us, independent of gender, so it’s in all of our interests to love both sides fully. Men and women both can be freed and supported by shining a light on the unconscious assumption and expectation that what men do is what’s interesting and important.
Rather than being against the masculine, however, International Women’s Day is an invitation to open up to the feminine too, whatever that means to us. We can celebrate public figures and inspirational women of history who show us what’s possible, and also everyday women we know who have a positive impact on our day-to-day lives. We can take extra time to love the “yin”, or feminine pole of consciousness, that lives in us all.
What is the theme of International Women’s Day?
The official theme of International Women’s Day in 2024 is digitalization and gender. Here at Villa Kali Ma, we have our take on what about women needs attention and celebration, and we favor a holistic look at how we can bring women’s thriving to the surface.
Women are hurt in digital domains and also in the physical world. The larger question is how can we bring the energies of violence and harm towards the feminine to a conclusion, and move forward in balance with love for all.
Because as much harm as exists, there is a greater force of love and health longing to surface everywhere and within. How can we be part of a planet-wide bloom of love for women?
How did International Women’s Day get Started?
The date of March 8th was anchored into the yearly calendar in 1910 by a group of British Suffragettes, those determined women who fought to secure women the right to vote.
Why is International Women’s Day celebrated?
International Women’s Day is celebrated in part to spread awareness of the contributions of women to our world. It is also an invitation to think about the needs of women, and how we might support each other better to be strong and free ourselves in this world. When women are supported to thrive, the world is a more balanced and feeling place.
Which Women can I celebrate on this day?
Each woman we admire mirroring something to us, about our nature, our longings, and our dormant courage.
Journal Prompt for Celebrating Women
Who can you celebrate from your sphere – a grandmother, mother, sister, aunt, best friend, or daughter? What about teachers, professors, therapists, healers?
Who can you celebrate from history? Which figures have inspired and encouraged you with their dashing, aesthetic, or powerful lives? Which leaders, community organizers, rebels, or peacemakers?
Who can you celebrate from the arts, humanities, or science and technology? Which female authors wove stories you could find your own experience within? Whose passionate or angelic singing voice touched your heart? Which painters, filmmakers, actresses, comedians, and performers have brought luminance to your life? Whose inventive or explorative spirit of discovery inspires your scientific curiosity?
How can I celebrate International Women’s Day?
Gratitude Exercise to Celebrate International Women’s Day
Write a list of women who are in your life now, whom you appreciate for whatever reason. Take a moment to reflect: what do you love about them, what do you see about them that makes them special and wonderful? What do you maybe want to thank or recognize them for?
Now find a way to let them know of your appreciation and recognition of them. Feel free to get creative – a live phone call means a lot these days, and so do handmade cards, snail mail letters, poems, and home-cooked meals. All women need support, and we women have the power to give it to each other.
Villa Kali Ma celebrates International Women’s Day
