International Women’s Day: Feminism for all

Image created by Finn Souter with photo by SHVETS production at Pexels

Rebecca Pattni reflects on growing up, family and what it means to be a woman today

‘Run like a girl’. That was the first time I realised that being a girl was supposed to mean something small or lesser. I was in year 4, aged 8, when a boy told me to run like a girl as a joke. I felt confused because I thought to myself, ‘I am a girl. What does he mean?’ I ran as I normally would, like the girl that I was. He stopped me and said, ‘You’re doing it wrong, it’s like this’, and ran off in a mocking manner, his limbs flapping wildly.

I was what is called a ‘tom-boy’ when I was younger. I loved Arsenal, football and getting muddy. I decided I hated pink and princesses at six, realising they were tied with being ‘girly’, something I did not want to be.

As I grew older, these experiences were pervasive in my life and continued to evolve, morph and form into different experiences I could never escape from, like a bad dream. These moments grounded my understanding of feminism and shaped my sense of what it means to be a woman, an identity that is still changing throughout my life.

International Women’s Day happens every year. Yet it often feels like an event that is brushed under the carpet or celebrated superficially. It is time for this pretence of solidarity with feminism to end. Let’s celebrate all women this year and recognise both their achievements and their struggles.

International Women’s Day falls on March 8th this year and has adopted the theme: ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.’ UN Women, set up by the United Nations to advance women’s rights, and gender equality, aims to amplify our collective determination so that we can rise to the empowerment of all women and girls.

As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 7 states: ‘All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law’.

Women all around the world must not lose hope for achieving equality. UN Women estimate it will take 286 years to close legal protection gaps. This statistic was often shared in school and left me feeling beaten rather than empowered.

Photo by Daniela Martinez of Women’s protest in Mexico city at Unsplash

In an increasingly frightening political landscape, dominated by the manosphere, hateful speech, and crimes against women, it’s easy to feel as though things won’t improve.

This International Women’s Day, we must not feel defeated. We must remind ourselves of how far we have come. From women gaining the vote in the UK in 1918 to second-wave feminism in the 1960s–80s, we have achieved so much.

Women’s liberation movements continue to advocate for important issues: violence against women, access to free contraception, freedom of choice around reproductive rights, equal pay, period poverty, and countless more.

As a young, Gen-Z, mixed-race woman from London, I consider myself a proud feminist and embrace the label fully. I was often outspoken in school and known as a feminist. At times, it was used as an insult, but now being called a feminist feels like the highest compliment.

Grace, 17, shares her feelings: ‘Feminism is really about equality, but just saying the word can make people uncomfortable. Often it’s misunderstood. People think it’s about hating men, which stops the conversation before it even starts’.

Men are often absent from discussions about feminism, even though it’s something that concerns them too. In today’s online discourse, being a feminist is sometimes turned into a meme when men say, ‘I’m a feminist (6ft’2 by the way)’. While this may cause a few lighthearted chuckles, it’s really a layered commentary mocking performative feminists who weaponise the term.

All the women in my life continue to amaze me, inspiring me to strive for my goals and dreams

Equality cannot be achieved alone; it requires all genders uniting in a collective effort.

Growing up, I’ve been surrounded by inspiring female figures, from my family to my teachers and friends. I was never left wondering if being a girl would hold me back. I simply refused to let it.

I am grateful to my parents for showing me that I could do anything I set my mind to. I am also grateful to both of my grandmothers, who taught me by example that you can come from entirely different backgrounds and still be equally strong.

My grandmother, Usha, visited her father for the first time at seven, taking a boat alone from Gujarat, India, to Mombasa, Kenya. She valued her education and always reminds me how important it is to study hard.

My grandma, Doris, grew up in Grimsby from a working-class background and overcame hardships, a testament to her character and resilience.

All the women in my life continue to amaze me, inspiring me to strive for my goals and dreams.

Being able to attend university is a privilege I’m deeply aware of, and I’m so grateful for the chance to study something I’m passionate about; English Literature.

I’m in my second year of university, and yes, I’ve skipped a few lectures. But I will never forget how lucky I am to study while so many girls around the world do not have access to education. I study to make my grandmothers proud, because I have opportunities they were never given.

Black women face different issues from white women. Cis women face different issues from trans women

What stands out to me most about this International Women’s Day is the emphasis on ALL.

As an English student, a term I hear frequently at university is ‘intersectionality’. This term was coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw and is defined as: ‘the interaction and cumulative effects of multiple forms of discrimination affecting the daily lives of individuals, particularly women of colour’. The term also refers more broadly to an intellectual framework for understanding how various aspects of individual identity, including race, gender, social class, and sexuality, interact to create unique experiences of privilege or oppression. It’s important to recognise on International Women’s Day that this day includes trans women too.

In April 2025, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. However, it’s my view that this is untrue, because a woman should not be defined solely by biology. A woman is so much more than this. Not all women experience the same challenges, so it is important to highlight the different lives and experiences of women who are oppressed in various ways.

Black women face different issues from white women. Cis women face different issues from trans women. Women who identify as disabled face different issues from women who are able-bodied. It is important to consider these differences.

Being a woman comes with challenges, many of which I have faced firsthand. We struggle with periods and a healthcare system that doesn’t prioritise research on female bodies. We face online rhetoric that subordinates women, deal with catcalling, and confront unrealistic beauty standards. We often have to work harder than men to get where we need to be.

Sibylla, 18, points pout: ‘The double standards don’t stop in the classroom. Boys get praised for doing the bare minimum, while girls are expected to work twice as hard and still be perfect. These stereotypes hurt everyone and shape the way we see and treat both men and women’.

I’m not even 20 yet, and I know I still have much to learn about what it means to be a woman in the world. One message I want to share with everyone is this: equality cannot be achieved by women alone.

We must all work together to create a world that treats everyone as equals!