International woman's Day

Today is International woman's Day(IWD), it is to commemorate the deeds of our foremothers and the selflessness of their actions to help women today achieve what they have. Little things such as the right to vote, the right of equal pay for equal work ( questionable, I know) the right to be not only a mother but an employee/employer or to stay home, the right to childcare facilities, freedom of choice in motherhood, relationships, sexuality; the right to say"no", the right of recourse via the legal system, the right to enter and serve in the armed forces, the police, the fire brigade, the SES, the CFA and numerous other protection and rescue services; the right to be whatever you wish to be; the right to education, be it tertiary or vocational; the right to serve on a jury, be the judge or magistrate, the barrister or the solicitor...........

In short, the women before us; be they our mothers, our aunts, our sisters, our cousins; gave us the rights and freedom of choices. How we use them, how we develop them, how we mix and match the product of our choices; is up to us. We need to ensure that they are not eroded by political agendas driven by guilt ridden rhetoric, that they are not cast into doubt by zealots who bring their beliefs to the parliamentary table; for they are our choices to be respected and unquestioned by anyone. Our foremothers did not suffer torment and ridicule, scorn and vilification for these steps ;they have made for us to rise above what they only were able to achieve; to be turned to rubble by those in society, business and politics who cannot accept the changing face of women.
We need to maintain the rage of our predecessors, fight for what we believe, what is our right, we need to smash the" glass ceiling" in the workplace in such a manner that the shards will be irreparable. We need to make it known;loud and clear; that to be a "stay at home mum" still makes us a worthy member of society, that taxpayers are not footing the bill for our leisure. That we are all of equal standing, be you working mothers or women who choose not to have children, or by fate, cannot have children, we are all united by a singular cause; that of furthering the rights of women; if not for ourselves; then for our children, our nieces, our god daughters , granddaughters and all who follow afterwards.