The Sad Truth About International Women’s Day

7 min readMar 8, 2019

Today is International Women’s Day, in case you don’t know and have missed your daily dose of news and social media.

It’s unfortunate that we are in 2019 and we have to dedicate a day for Women, you know half the fucking population on this planet!

What kind of advanced species are we that we have spent millennia evolving, advancing, and creating, however, oops we forgot to take care of those of us who literally bring us to life!

Hey Men, You Are Not The Target! Assholes Are.

As a man, I find it laughable to see men outraged and thinking they are under attack by women’s rights movements. Really?!

Have you taken a fucking look around you?!

Men have it all.

All the money, all the positions, all the privilege, all the benefits, and all the power.

Not only that, but we also created all the problems, waged all the wars, committed all the atrocities, and fucked up our planet big time.

Ok, ok, not all the problems, just 99% of them!

Is your blood boiling yet?

Ok, I grant you, there are idiots everywhere, and women’s rights movements are not immune to idiocy and people who take things to the extreme, and yes we need to point it out, and they need to clean it up where it arises.

However, if you are a man and you feel under attack by these movements, you are one of two kinds of men: Good Men or Assholes.

Yes, this is a generalization, but think of those two as ends of a scale and men fall somewhere in between.

If you are a good man, and feel you are under attack, it’s probably because you measuring the world according to your point of view. You may be thinking “I’m a good man” who treats everyone, including women, in your family and social circles with respect and care. That’s why you can’t understand what’s the big deal. You do not see the abuse of women and the abuse of power happening in the world outside of yours.

You worked hard to get to be the person you are, to earn what you’ve accomplished, to achieve the results you’ve achieved. And so the word “privilege” enrages you, “what fucking privilege” you say. I have worked hard for this.

Even worst if you are looking for a job or underemployed (working for low wage) and someone dares to call what you are dealing with “privilege!”

No one is denying this, or wants to take that away from you. In fact, quite the opposite, fairness in the workplace will end up benefiting you as well.

Think for a minute, did you ever have someone in an interview say “let’s go out to dinner and maybe then we will see about your job prospects at our organization”?

Did you ever have your boss come to you and say “you look hot in this new suit” you are wearing and offer to take you on a date, and maybe feel your ass as a joking gesture, you know, totally harmless?!

Did you ever have to accept that just because you are a man, a woman doing the exact same work will be paid higher and that’s just the way it is?

Have you ever been asked to button up your shirt and dress more conservative cause you are distracting your team members with the sexual signals you are sending by looking good?

Now you may brush this off and say “that’s it?!” really, is that what the whole fuss is about, it’s just something one has to deal with. NO, IT’S FUCKING NOT.

And it’s not what this is all about. These are symptoms of the deeply held views of women in the workplace, the abuse of power over subordinates, and the lack of accountability for those with senior positions.

No one has to go through this. This form of power abuse makes the job 10 or 100 times harder. Hell, having to work with someone we don’t like makes the job harder, imagine having to deal with all of that bullshit while trying to do your job.

Now take that to the Internet, where everyone is cowardly hiding behind a veil of anonymity, and they are quick to insult you and bring to the surface the absolute worst human filth they have and focus it on you.

Multiply that with a factor of 10 or a 100 if you’re a woman!

Check Toxic Twitter — A Toxic Place for Women

So yes, you need to stop measuring things according to how you would interact, what you would do, and how you would feel, that’s a skewed and inaccurate way of looking at the matter, to say the least.

Put simply, stop interpreting the constant bombardment you are feeling about women’s right and the attack against toxic masculinity as somehow an attack on you. IT IS NOT.

It’s ok if you don’t wish to join the fight, and no is here to take your rights, but STOP standing alongside the assholes who are the real target of these attacks.

As for assholes, all I can say is that your time has come, and there is no place for you to hide among the real men, who are head down working hard every day alongside women to make our world better.

We Still Have a Long Way To Go

For the life of me, I don’t understand how anyone can think otherwise. Even if I maintain the most open mind. How can you not see what’s going on in the world?!

Here are some reports and stats that can give you an idea, you know DATA, not opinions:

The data show there has been significant progress towards legal gender equality over the past decade. In 131 economies there have been 274 reforms to laws and regulations, leading to an increase in gender equality. This includes the 35 economies that implemented laws on workplace sexual harassment, protecting nearly two billion more women than a decade ago. But the average global score is 74.71, indicating that a typical economy only gives women three-quarters the rights of men in the measured areas.
Very few women are CEOs of the world’s largest corporations. As of the 2018 Fortune list, only 24 women (4.8%) were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
In Somalia, 95% of girls experience genital mutilation.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1,000 women are raped each day.
Every day, 10 Brazilian women lose their lives to domestic violence.
Women account for less than a quarter (24%) of senior roles globally
Women held only 15% of board director seats worldwide in 2017, a small increase from 12% in 2015.
Although 82% of women aged 25 to 54 now participate in Canada’s workforce,4 they are still underrepresented in leadership roles. Women hold only 25% of vice-president positions, and 15% of CEO positions
In 2017, the global average annual earnings for women were $12,000, compared to men’s earnings of $21,000.
Despite spending equivalent time at a job, Canadian women are significantly less likely than men to be promoted. Women are 30% less likely than men to get promoted out of an entry-level position, and 60% less likely to move from middle management into the executive ranks
Even in the gig economy, women face a pay gap. Women earn, on average, 37% less than men in hourly wage rates.

For more resources check:

Take Action:

Women’s Rights Movements are on the rise, and just like any initiative, they have their fair share of the good and bad, hits and misses. Their leaders are humans, and they make mistakes.

Stop sitting at the sidelines and pointing out what is and isn’t working.

Take action, participate, engage, help, advise, contribute, and add value.

Make International Women’s Day the day where you stopped being a passive observer and became an active contributor to the conversation. Add your voice of reason, state the facts, and work to help and raise the people around you for their work, the value they add and recognize their work.

There is no way you can lose if you do that.

I leave you with some of the things you can do today:

The Sad Truth About International Women’s Day

Hey Men, You Are Not The Target! Assholes Are.

We Still Have a Long Way To Go

Take Action:

Written by Hussein Hallak

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