Celebrating International Women's Day

When we think of International Woman’s Day, we generally think of the collective achievements of women. But to get there I think we need to do it one woman at a time. We need to start with ourselves, and more importantly, with how we perceive ourselves.

This reminds me of the Dove advertisement where women were asked to describe their appearance to a sketch artist; he drew them as they saw themselves. He then did another sketch based on what a stranger observed about their features. All the faults each of the women sketched saw as glaring and obvious went completely unnoticed by the strangers. If this is how hard we are on our looks, what about how we judge ourselves on our character or our abilities? We are truly our own harshest critic!

An inspiring advocate for women's rights once said, 'We need to reshape our own opinion of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.'

I certainly think that here at the English Language Institute (ELI) we are doing just that. I come from a country where the majority of key roles are in the hands of men. And although this has improved a lot in recent years, I have never been part of something run solely by women, for women.

I have come to admire and truly stand in awe of so many of my colleagues here, who strive to always do the best they can and be the best at what they do. And with the theme for International Women’s Day 2023 being DigitALL – Innovation and Technology for gender equality, I think we can all stand tall with our heads held up high!

So, on to my motto for life:

'My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive, and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style'??— Maya Angelou

Written by: Hasina Munshi

Editor: Aziza Khanom