Today happens to be International Women’s Day, a day set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, while also calling for faster progress toward gender equality.
Hear, hear.
I’ve always written strong women. Not because it’s fashionable, and certainly not because it’s required. I write them because they’re everywhere. History is full of them. Life is full of them. Sometimes they’re simply harder to see.
At my last market, a woman stopped at my table and became genuinely excited when she realized the women in my books weren’t decorative side characters or convenient plot devices. They were competent. Determined. Capable of steering their own lives.
She thanked me for it.
That moment stuck with me, because it reminded me how hungry readers are to see women who are allowed to be fully human on the page.
The Women History Forgot
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know I often write about women who have been overlooked by history. The explorers, scientists, strategists, spies, writers, and builders whose stories were quietly edited out of the official record. These women were strong by definition.
They had to be. The world they lived in rarely made space for them. To accomplish anything, they had to push against expectations that insisted they remain small, quiet, and invisible. Yet they persisted.
History sometimes forgets them, but that doesn’t make their strength any less real. And their stories matter now more than ever.
We’ve Come Far… But the Work Isn’t Finished
There’s no denying that women have made enormous progress over the last century. Opportunities that once seemed impossible are now normal parts of everyday life. But progress isn’t a straight line. It never has been.
Lately, it feels as though we’ve backslid a little. Rights and opportunities that once seemed settled are being questioned again. Old assumptions are resurfacing in new packaging. This is not the moment to relax and assume the work is finished.
Equality is not something you achieve once and then place on a shelf. It requires attention. It requires participation. It requires people who are willing to keep nudging the world forward.
The Myth of “Only”
There’s a phrase that still pops up from time to time that makes me wince. “Only a housewife.”
There is no “only” about it. Running a household is management, logistics, negotiation, budgeting, planning, emotional labor, crisis control, and about a dozen other skills rolled together. Anyone who has ever tried to keep a home running smoothly knows it is real work.
But the deeper issue with that phrase is the quiet message it carries: that some roles matter less than others. They don’t.
Social change rarely begins with laws or court decisions. Those tend to arrive later, once society has already shifted. Most real change begins in ordinary homes, ordinary conversations, and ordinary decisions about what behavior is acceptable and what is not.
Children learn what respect looks like by watching their parents. Communities decide what behavior they will tolerate by how they respond to it. That quiet modeling shapes culture far more powerfully than most legislation ever could.
Inequality Is a Slippery Beast
Inequality rarely announces itself with trumpets and banners. More often, it slips quietly into daily life through small compromises and unspoken expectations. It thrives on the moments when something feels slightly wrong, but not quite wrong enough to challenge.
It’s easier to let it slide. Easier to avoid the argument. Easier to tell ourselves that it doesn’t matter that much.
But those small moments add up.
So today, on International Women’s Day, it might be worth asking a simple question: What have you been putting up with because it’s easier than insisting things change? Sometimes the answer will be small. Sometimes it will be uncomfortable. Occasionally it might surprise you.
Awareness Is Where Change Begins
Change doesn’t always begin with grand gestures or public speeches. Often it starts with something much quieter: noticing.
Noticing the language people use. Noticing the expectations placed on women versus men. Noticing the subtle ways people are encouraged to shrink or apologize for taking up space. Once you see those things clearly, it becomes easier to decide what you actually believe. And once you know that, the next step is simply sticking to it.
Not aggressively. Not combatively. Just consistently.
Those small acts of clarity ripple outward in ways we rarely see.
Quiet Revolutions
The world doesn’t only change because of activists, lawmakers, or headlines. It also changes because ordinary people quietly decide they will no longer accept certain assumptions.
They raise their daughters to be confident. They teach their sons to respect women as equals. They speak up when something feels off. They model the behavior they want to see in the world.
These are quiet revolutions, but they are powerful ones. History shows us again and again that when enough people make those small choices, the larger change eventually follows.
Happy International Women’s Day
So today, take a moment to celebrate the women who came before us, the women whose stories were recorded and the many whose stories were not.
Celebrate the strength that exists in everyday lives. And perhaps take a moment to consider where you might draw a line, however small, about what you believe and what you will no longer quietly accept.
That’s where change begins.
Happy International Women’s Day.
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