I had never celebrated International Women’s Day before (March 8th). When one of the female physicians and a midwife approached me about organizing an event for the hospital, I agreed to help.
The plan was to have a raffle, read poetry that would inspire and encourage women and have our hospital executive director give a speech. The entire event lasted an hour but what a truly inspiring time.
It was exciting to see the women at the hospital celebrate and encourage one another. Our hospital staff consists of slightly over 300 employees and about half of them are women. As a western woman who has been afforded so many rights and privileges, there have been days that I get frustrated because rights and privileges are different here. I have seen and experienced a few situations in the last few months that make me appreciate what the women who fought so hard to guarantee my right to an education, to vote and to be able to make decisions regarding medical care went through.
International Women’s day was inspiring and I was glad I was able to celebrate it with the female staff that I work with. I look forward to the day when there is less disparity in the rights and privileges for the women in this world.
