This is a time for men and women to celebrate the dramatic shift we have seen in regards to women’s rights. It’s incredible to learn that Australian women who worked in the agriculture industry were not allowed to call themselves a farmer until after 1994. How far we have come since then. A new phenomenon has presented and inequality has passed, women can now determine what they wear and how they wear it! They can work in safety and comfort day in day out.
For millennia clothing has been an indicator of Social Status. In this current era this is more potent than ever before. Clothing is used to identify as this or as that – often it is worn as a badge of honour to shout out “I belong ‘here’!”. Over time, in western culture women have become more able to determine their own role within society and as a result their clothing has reflected this.
Women being unable to dictate their own view on their fashion has been one of the more obvious forms of inequality in human history and womens roles within society have been adversly effected by this inequality.
Clothing is the visual validation of a persons sense of identity. The outward expression of their sense of worth; of how they see themselves fitting into society. We have come a long way when it comes to women's wellbeing at their workplace and home, but there is still some way to go. International Womens Day is a day to openly discuss the positives of how far we have come and what we can do to improve equality in the future.