May 30, 2016 - Written by: Yazmin Joy

Women’s Equality Day: There’s More Freedom to be Had, Ladies!

I was beaming as I read the headline on my Facebook newsfeed.

‘No more tampon tax! HUZAH!’ I exclaimed with unadulterated delight as I sat at my office desk on a cool spring morning.

(Image via)

I was mid-dancing in my swivel chair when I noticed my colleague’s blank expression: ‘Do you care about that kind of stuff then?’

‘Of course.’ I replied. ‘Why should we pay extra tax for something that’s a basic sanitary need?’

‘It would only be a couple of pence extra, not really going to effect my life is it?’

Was she joking? Was I on camera? I lowered my invisible maracas.

‘But if someone had given you a petition to sign you would have signed it right?’

‘To be honest, I don’t really care.’ She sighed. ‘I mean it’s such a small thing, besides everything is pretty much equal now.’

Before me was a smart, MA graduate who had traveled the world and ran her own business – how could she not care about equality?

She was a walking, talking testimonial of the protest and sacrifice of countless women before her. And yet… she didn’t actually know it.

My problem is not with the huffs and groans and blank expressions, it’s with the fact that, like my colleague, an alarming number of fellow women are very happy to use the privileges but absolutely aghast of the idea of fighting for them. Not only that, they actively avoid contributing.

To the ladies who don’t want the inconvenience of equality, I have a question: Where exactly do you think all this ‘freedom’ came from?

You like getting paid the same as your male colleagues, right? You enjoy choosing your own career path and having the option of university, oui? Those jeans, mm comfy, hey?

And guess what? There’s EVEN more freedom to be had ladies.

Here are 3 women you can support RIGHT NOW:

1 . Go volunteer with Pavan Amara at her award winning My Body Back clinic, which is pioneering the way female victims of sexual violence are treated by in medical and judicial system.

2 . Sign Nicola Thorp’s government petition to stop companies who (legally) force female employees to wear heels.

3 . Lobby with Jasvinder Sanghara – who has already campaigned to make forced marriage illegal in the UK and is currently campaigning to train and equip authorities, councils and schools to spot signs of honour abuse.

The word feminist is not as dirty as you think, it’s dirtier – and it is being fought for you.

If you got up today and had a choice about what you wore, where you went and what you did, it’s because at some point in history another women pictured you doing so. Then she went out and caused a riot about it. Not because she was crazy or because she was criminally insane, not because she was egocentric or had nothing better to do, but because she believed in you.