International Women's Day 2025: The Exhausting Yet Unyielding Fight for Equality

Every March 8 serves as a reminder of why we continue to fight. But what happens when the struggle becomes exhausting? Being a feminist is not merely a cause; it is a constant rhythm in everyday life. Advocating for our place in society is a daily exercise that drains us and sometimes puts us at odds even with those we consider allies. This International Women’s Day, I reflect on the fatigue, discomfort, and necessity of moving forward because, although the journey is long, change is inevitable.

A bittersweet feeling washes over me. The International Women’s Day is a day of advocacy, visibility, and struggle, yet this year, I approach it with a different kind of exhaustion.

This fatigue is not merely physical; it is emotional, mental, and almost existential. Fighting for equality, equity, work-life balance, our safety, respect, belief in our experiences, and addressing the wage gap is not confined to a single date on the calendar. It is a continuous pulse, an unceasing battle, waged both publicly and privately, on the streets and at home, in everyday conversations that reveal uncomfortable truths.

It is in these intimate spaces that I sometimes find myself confronted with the realization that feminism, or the act of claiming our space as women, must often be exercised quietly, only in certain company, to avoid causing upheaval, friction, and suspicion.

The reality is complex. You might believe that with those you share life, values, and discourse, there is mutual understanding, a common ground from which to advance. Yet often, beneath a veneer of progressivism and apparent feminism, lie entrenched habits, structures, and privileges that resist yielding.

It is exhausting to have to point this out, explain it, and re-argue it when what I desire is simply for it to be understood and accepted without the need for constant pedagogy.

I have no doubts about the struggle or its necessity. I know what I want and what is just. I recognize that there are phrases that should never be uttered, gestures that should not be repeated, and structures that should not be upheld. However, at times, the burden of always being the one to point things out, to alert, to unsettle, becomes unbearable. In those moments, guilt lurks: Am I exaggerating? Am I too demanding? Is it ever enough? Am I losing my way?

But no, I am not losing my way. What is happening is that this system, despite all its advancements, still rests on the comfort of those who do not have to question their place within it. We continue to collide with that invisible wall, that glass ceiling, against those small daily resistances that, when combined, represent the true weight preventing us from moving forward with the speed and clarity we desire.

So here I stand on this March 8: tired, yes. Confused, too. But not defeated. And although the battlefield is vast, as more of us raise our voices, there are still many women and men who need to join what is simply just. As long as we keep advancing, as long as we continue to build from conviction and unity, change, though slow, will be inevitable.

We are the ones who unsettle, who persist, who will not be silenced.