Yes, it is true. We did not wish anyone a Happy Women’s Day this year. International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global celebration held annually on March 8 to recognise women’s achievements and advocate for gender equality. In 2025, it is a Saturday. Not a very peaceful one. We are flooded with happy Women’s Day messages on WhatsApp and all other social media and networking platforms. While we sit down to write this piece, we stop to remember all we know about this day.
Women’s Day: The history
IWD has its roots in the early 1900s, emerging from women’s labour movements in industrialised nations. Women marched for better working conditions, voting rights, and equal pay. Over time, the movement has evolved. The United Nations officially recognised International Women’s Day in 1975. The day serves as a call to action for accelerating gender parity and highlighting ongoing efforts worldwide.
International Women’s Day 2025: Accelerate Action
The 2025 campaign theme is ‘Accelerate Action.’ It emphasises the need for swift and decisive action to achieve gender equality. This theme focuses on addressing structural obstacles and prejudices that women face in their personal and professional lives.
Today, IWD is a global movement that inspires action and advocacy for women’s rights. It is a day to celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness about ongoing challenges, and promote gender equality worldwide. We salute the initiative. However, we are sceptical about the noise around Women’s Day. Therefore, we are writing this post today with all our integrity and our emotions.
Changeincontent.com: Thoughts that bother us
We try to break down our primary thoughts into two hypothetical scenarios.
Scenario 1
When a child is born, their first identity is getting a name, a masculine or a feminine name. In the first few months, there is hardly any difference in a baby’s behaviour. However, how the family or society talks to the child is essential in how the person shapes up. If we simplify it, many females do not grow up to experience babyhood or adulthood.
Section 315 of the Indian Penal Code defines infanticide as the killing of an infant in the 0–1 year age group. The Code uses this definition to differentiate between infanticide and numerous other crimes against children, such as foeticide and murder. The sheer number of females not growing up to 1 or being killed while they should be in their mother’s womb is frightening.
The second scenario
On the other hand, the scenario is different in many households. The world that we live in also has doting families who love their daughters as much as their other gendered children. However, these women also grow up conforming to societal narratives. We teach our girls to play with dolls or houses or less physically taxing games. When they grow up, we send them to dance or art classes, wherein we send our boys to play cricket or something sporty. The exceptions are too few.
When this same girl grows up, despite getting an education and professional training, she learns to look after the house, beautifies herself, and prepares herself to be a wife or a mother. Depending on variables like socio-economic agency, education, will, motivation, caste, state, family, support system, health, and various other factors, she either continues in the workplace or exits it.
Irrespective of choosing a career or a homemaker role, Indian women continue to spend significantly more time on unpaid work, including household chores and caregiving, compared to men. Among individuals aged 15–59, 41% of women took on caregiving duties for household members, while only 21.4% of men in the same age group did the same. Even when men participated, the time they spent was noticeably less. Women dedicated around 140 minutes daily to caregiving, while men managed just 74 minutes.
As a result, the so-called privileged and capable woman becomes invisible in the decision-making process. It is a large discourse.
Understanding it better
What we are saying is that even when there is love, there is equal opportunity among siblings of different genders; even when there is economic support and a nurturing environment, a woman is meant to play various roles and suffers from ‘Time Poverty.’ As a wife, a daughter, and a mother, there is too much demand for her health, time, and career. Data shows women are more prone to various deficiencies and auto-immune conditions; women still die at childbirth and, despite doing a lot of work, are extremely poor. The investment in women’s health is abysmally low worldwide. These are just scratching the surface of gender politics. The inequalities are everywhere.
In these diametrically divergent scenarios, it is always the woman who loses out to a man. Also, in our daily lives, we come across stories of stalking, domestic violence, workplace bullying and microaggressions, sexual harassment and work. The list goes on and on.
We are not theorising. We are committed to making the basics of gender politics, feminism, and intersectional feminism accessible and easy for all to understand. It is commonly misunderstood as all about bashing men. Till we see DEI as a function excluded from business, there will be a gap. Therefore, we endeavour to bridge the knowledge gap in the organisations. It is about being aware of patriarchy and social injustice and how we can make changes in workplaces by conversing with/about women and the marginalised daily. We say no to tokenism- the idea of making things right by planning an event once a year or offering a gift on Women’s Day. Every day should be a day celebrated by every woman and everyone marginalised.
Women’s Day 2025: The dark realities of a woman’s life
Whether a woman is privileged enough to lead a life on their terms or has no right to drink water from the same wells where the higher caste people drink water from, women face safety issues. Whether you are a Dalit woman, a doctor from R.G. Kar Medical College, a young, carefree Nirbhaya living in our capital city, or our little girls on social media, everyone has felt unsafe and been violated to different degrees.
Here, we define women as anyone who identifies as a woman. Transwomen are just as vulnerable to rape and physical violence as cisgender women. In fact, studies have shown that transgender individuals, particularly trans women, face disproportionately high rates of violence and discrimination. It includes physical and sexual assault, harassment, and even murder. The stigma and rejection they face from society, families, and even some shelters and law enforcement exacerbate their vulnerability. Whether a perpetrator is out on the streets or they are at home, a woman is vulnerable.
Women and Fear: The disturbing connection
Whether I am a movie star, a mother, or corporate woman or a transwoman, we are all unified in one way: ‘FEAR.’ The fear of getting raped, fear of growing old, fear of being subject to domestic violence or not being accepted socially.
As women, we do not get to live our lives totally. We read about successful CEOs like Indira Nooyi having to go to school with cupcakes, as she cannot fail as a mother. Or we read about celebrities living on apple cider vinegar so that they can look their best during a photoshoot. Women dont get it all. The demand that is always put on women, the sheer volume of roles they have to play, and the unconscious bias discrimination that is dished out to them on a daily basis are humungous.
Changeincontent.com: It is time to change the narrative around Women’s Day
At changeincontent.com, we believe that narratives need to change. There has to be equal opportunity; there has to be ‘no pinkwashing’, no fear-mongering, no exclusion based on gender, equal pay, and no marginalisation or biases. There is a need for organisations, the state, and marketing to take cognisance of the fact that women are not less and men are not more equal. We don’t need tokenistic conversations around women, and we need to showcase women as markers or statistics during stakeholder meetings. We simply need to treat women as equals.
Women need education, strong allyship with men, and discerning on celebratory days. We need to question the brand that offers women 50% off on making charges on jewellery on March 8. The brand perpetuates the same narratives that keep women dependent on the narratives we have built around women: to be decorative. There is no harm in being decorative or well put together. However, that cannot be the only reason for gender to exist.
#NoWomensDay: The theme that we advocate for this year
It is because of all the above reasons that we are introducing the hashtag #NoWomensDay this year. We respect the concept of International Women’s Day (IWD). However, we do have some objections. What we object to is the consumerisation of this concept. It reminds us of the day when women get to rest because they are menstruating.
We say no to using women to market your products when you do not employ an equal ratio of women in your workforce. We say #NoWomensDay when the influencer you have engaged is cracking misogynistic jokes. Also, we say #NoWomensDay when your product uses agricultural outputs, and women farmers do not get paid. We further say #NoWomensDay when you sell products to women because they have dark skin or wrinkles. And we say #NoWomensDay when you join us in a candlelight march because our daughter or our sister has been brutalised, and despite our votes or a woman CM at the helm of affairs, you have not protected your women.
#NoWomensDay: What we will continue doing
At changeincontent.com, we will regularly publish data, features, and POVs about discrimination and progress and call out biases. We hope you read us, criticise us, and start using our hashtag #NoWomensDay. Exploitation as a consumer, exploitation at home, and exploitation at work, however innocent and seamless they are, at the garb of Women’s Day, is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Instead, talk about women every day, promote meritocracy, allow her flexibility when she needs it because of her caregiving responsibilities, assign a mentor, help her build allyships, ensure that no perpetrators are lurking at the workplace, and help her stand on her feet. Once she has a safe space and a few bucks, she will be a consumer, and no one will have to build on her insecurities.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are based on the writer’s insights, supported by data and resources available both online and offline, as applicable. Changeincontent.com is committed to promoting inclusivity across all forms of content. We broadly define inclusivity as media, policies, law, and history—encompassing all elements that influence the lives of women and marginalised individuals. Our goal is to promote understanding and advocate for comprehensive inclusivity.
