Opinion: International Women's Day a farce

It was International Women's Day this week so naturally my social media accounts have been flooded with people praising their mothers, grandmothers and influential women in society.

But the posts didn't fill me with pride, joy or a sense of how far society's progressed because 90 per cent of those posts were pure tokenism, people wanting to be seen to be ''doing the right thing'' and ''supporting the right cause'' so their friends would give them that much desired digital thumbs up.

The worst were the posts by men saying their mum was their hero when their last 10 posts were full of naked women and derogatory jokes. It was the posts by women saying they long for gender equality but have never voted in their lives.

Topping it off we posted a story on our Facebook page asking our online readers what gender equality issue they thought were most pressing.

I sat there thinking people would raise the exploitative prices of sanitary products, the pay gap, sexual violence and birth control.

Nope. The post got two comments and the first was about how gender equality studies were biased towards women and the first equality issue addressed should be setting up a Ministry for Men.

I am a feminist and in my experience by announcing that, some people will dismiss me, get angry or start a tirade about how I apparently hate men, grow my armpit hair and burn my bras.

Feminism has turned into a dirty word and for a lot of people the only day safe to activate for equal rights is on International Women's Day.

I've been groped, wolf-whistled, told to smile, not swear and try be "more agreeable". I've had a teacher roll his eyes at my Year 8 speech on women's rights and in my lifetime for every comment made about my personality or mind, I've had a dozen made about my body.

I posted nothing online on International Women's Day. I don't need one day a year to show my support for gender equality, I have 365 which I try to use not only to show my support but actually make a difference.