Happy International women's day

Written by Aisha Alli Balogun

Today is international women’s day and I wanted to take this opportunity to write to all of you about what it means to be a woman. Each generation has impacted everyone including women in different ways, in some ways, we have really influenced the world to change things from how they used to be. Women weren’t even allowed to vote because men took control and it was something alone men could do. It wasn’t until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 that women over 21 were allowed to vote and that was a huge achievement for us. Emmeline Pankhurst was a big part of that movement as she was the founder of the Suffragettes that fought for women to be able to vote.

There are a variety of women who helped people move forward in life by sacrificing everything so that we could have it all. Women like Jane Austen, she is a literary figure who has had more influence on British culture than she thought she would have. She wrote a variety of books like Pride and Prejudice that really changed the views of the world and influenced everyone even though no one knew she wrote those books.

Another woman who helped change the world is Malala Yousafzai as she was just a young Pakistani student who fought hard to stay in education and believe that girls should also have the right to stay in education just as much as boys. However, there was an extreme group named The Taliban who didn’t want girls to go to school but Malala fought against it but she was attacked by the soldiers and luckily survived. The world found out about what happened and she instantly gained the support of millions, she even became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize in the world. She still continues to fight for girls’ rights all over the world as she wants to help inspire many generations to come.

To every woman out there, it isn’t easy being a woman in such a tough world sometimes but we are strong enough to rise about it. If we have each other’s backs, then we can get through everything and make the world a better place for ourselves as well as future generations whether it is helping out by keeping the planet clean or volunteering to help the younger generation figure out their passions, we can take one step at a time. I am proud to be me and you should be too!