International Women’s Day – Katleen Michiels

I bet many women didn’t even know about Woman’s day, or at least – the fact that it is happening today, until this morning when they turned to some kind of transmitting device. And to be honest, I wasn’t exactly counting down to it either, until I got engaged in this little awareness project.

Dedicating a particular date to an issue – any issue – is always delicate. Because somehow, it both reduces and enlarges the topic at hand. Some themes deserve attention to the extend that every day should be about raising awareness. Others might have lost relevance and might better be skipped alltogether (did you know there’s something called Sweater Day? it was on February 4th…).

Gender is a tricky one in this respect.

Even I, a woman indeed, sometimes consider it to be a bit of a non-issue, or at least an “ex-issue” these days (It obviouly helps that I live and work in a democratic, western, so mostly civilized country).  

Other times, however, something still itches every time female stereotypes are used in lame-ish jokes.

I still feel funny about the fact that I went through twelve years of ballet classes, when in fact I wanted to play some serious soccer. 

And gender still is one of the biggest issues in other places on the planet today. Let’s not overlook the facts.

I’ve concluded for myself that it can’t hurt to dedicate one entire day to talking about women.

Not necessarily about the heavy-hearted stuff, but just about stuff.

And so that’s what I did, about a bunch of topics, with Katleen Michiels. 

Please have a listen to what she has to say.

She’s quite the woman.