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International Women’s Day is not a celebration. It is a day to observe and to remind us that 70% of women have experienced some sort of violence during their lives. This violence causes more death between women aged 15 and 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. Furthermore, as a result of this violence most of them develop health issues like strokes, heart disease, depression, anxiety, stress-related syndromes, substance abuse and suicide.

International Women’s Day should also make us think about those women who are discriminated every day on the street, at home, at the workplace. Women whose cultural and social beliefs do not give them a right to work; women who due to economic hardships and family responsibilities are forced to work in precarious employment; women who are segregated into the same types of employment because they are not considered to be strong or smart enough, or reliable enough, to hold leadership and managerial positions; women who work just as hard as any man but only earn a fraction of their salary just because they are women.

These are the women who we should think about on International Women’s Day. Let’s make this day another reason to keep fighting for a more equal and just society in which women can feel safe and proud to be women.