"A struggle for a just opportunity that's more than a 'Hallmark holiday'"
A message for International Working Women's Day
It is expected that this International Working Women’s Day is rather reduced to flowers, corporate slogans, and token gestures of appreciation. That by seeing social media posts, messages from the administration, to that of public relations blasts, this celebration of womanhood showcases appreciation of women and her role in this growing society and its numerous contributions to recognise and to emulate with.
But regardless of their messages, of shallow praises, this day was never meant to be just a celebration—it was born from struggle, a call to action against oppression and exploitation. That, in seeing the realities ranging from rising costs of living, low wages, unjust working standards, and various forms of exploitation against women and the people, a concerned would say that this outweighs the token praises, the mere "thank yous", for it fails to address the problems that also affects women not just the society.
To cite Klara Zetkin, who helped establish this International Working Women’s Day in 1910, understood that women’s liberation was inseparable from the struggle against capitalist exploitation. As she declared, “The working women’s movement is, in its deepest essence, a movement for the liberation of humanity.” Her vision was not about breaking a glass ceiling for a privileged few—it was about tearing down the entire system that keeps working women in chains.
Even Alexandra Kollontai, the Bolshevik revolutionary, also saw this occasion as a moment not just for reflection, but for mobilization. She insisted, “The history of women’s struggle for their rights is a history of struggle against the privileges of men.” But she also knew that gender oppression was tied to class, that true equality could not come through mere legal reforms or corporate diversity initiatives—it required the overthrow of the structures that benefit from women’s unpaid labor and economic dependence.
In the Philippines, this event also urges the Filipina to remember history especially in this time of institutionalised forgetfulness. The contributions brought by those of Gabriela Silang, Trinidad Rizal, Melchora Aquino, Commander Liwayway, Lorena Barros, and others showed that gender equality, women's empowerment, and the likes is not some rhetoric promising women "fully enjoy their rights, have equal access to opportunities, and live free from gender bias, violence, and discrimination" but a serious commitment as that of the desire for national and social liberation. True that in this occasion meant recognising women's contributions in life, but this contributions cannot simply end as displays to adorn the mind but inspires the present and future to cling to an unwitten committment beyond the home, workplace, and society. After all, the overall worsening social conditions still hit women particularly hard as it intensifies their oppression and suffering from unemployment, unequal wages and unequal conditions in the household as that of seeing political scandals and issues on national sovereignty.
Expect critics downplay this as some "woke" nonsense, that "why not appreciate without the political baggage?" Like those behind Mothers Day whose original call was for world peace, this occasion is not some "hallmark holiday" that reduces statement and assertion into some profit and shallow "appreciation" by the status quo- especially when people still witness a global backlash against women’s rights—from attacks on personal freedom to the exploitation of female labor in the economy be it wages or conditions in the workplace, this commemoration is indeed not some "woke nonsense" and therefore must reclaim International Working Women’s Day as a day of struggle. It is not enough to ‘empower’ women within an unjust system; but rather, fight evenly to dismantle that system itself.
Finally, as this note honors the legacy of those who assert the rights and welfare of women, that is, not simply by accepting the crumbs of token reform and getting contented in it, but by continuing their revolutionary fight. International Working Women’s Day is not just a moment to celebrate—it is a battle cry from the home, workplace, and in the society itself.
