Aside from the usual kitchen/sandwich jokes, there's been one particularly popular response to International Women's Day today. All over Twitter there has been an inundating response of 'the most inspirational women' - ranging from 'top 10' to 'top 50' to 'tell us what woman inspires you'.
Remembering women who have made the world an easier place for future generations of females is certainly never a bad thing. The whole point of IWD however, in my opinion, is to celebrate equality - naming loads of successful women and why they're inspiring all day long defeats the point.
Instead of the most common response today being a banal 'here are some inspirational women', who I'm sure wouldn't want to be recognised because of their sex, we should take a leaf out of their book and come up with something a bit more inspirational and a bit less patronising.
Around the world there are many battles going on for equality of sex. But the majority of the names I've seen floating around are women that live in a country that enjoys relative equality. Aside from the mass of retweets saying 'my best friend inspires me because she's nice', one woman mentioned was J. K. Rowling.
J. K. Rowling is a success because of her magnificent brain - not in spite of being a woman. She shouldn't be celebrated for the fact that she's female.
We are fighting for equality, so stop retweeting why so-and-so wants the world to know her auntie is inspiring - because it only alludes to the fact that we think women need extra congratulations when they're successful in a country that, aside from a few issues, celebrates equal rights.
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