Feminisms are a social movement with a long history, engaged in a fight to gain and secure women’s rights that’s been going on for over two centuries. Despite legislative advances, we still live in a patriarchal society that fosters and normalises inequality between women and men in all areas of life. That’s why on 8 March, as on every other day, we need to continue calling for effective equality between women and men. The rise of the feminist movement in recent years is undeniable. Feminisms – built on diversity and sisterhood – have occupied squares, streets and social networks to champion the rights of women, calling for elimination of the pay gap,  dignification of care work, and respect for sexual and reproductive rights in the face of an offensive by reactionary anti-choice movements. Society has also expressed its firm rejection of all forms of sexual violence and of patriarchal court decisions that legitimate violence against women.

 

In this context – one of women’s empowerment – the patriarchy is once again baring its teeth and counter-attacking in an effort to roll back the progress that’s been made in dismantling the structures that support everyday discrimination against women around the world at all stages of their lives. But the network woven by feminisms inspires us to resist and to persist in our struggle against patriarchal pushback aimed at maintaining male privilege to the detriment of real quality between women and men. Women are full citizens, and laws are not a bargaining chip to achieve power.

 

The government, feminist movements and society as a whole must reaffirm a shared determination not to take a single step back. As a society, we cannot let this happen. We must move forward, building on the legacy and experience of our forebears, to dismantle once and for all a patriarchal system that oppresses women and men within the framework of an androcentric model that denies people their fundamental rights.

 

In line with these principles, to move forward towards a just and egalitarian society for all, the Catalan government, through the Catalan Institute for Women, will shortly approve its Strategic Plan on Gender Equality Policy 2019–22, which includes measures in a all areas. This tool, which implements Law 17/2015, of 21 July, on Effective Equality between Women and Men, sets out a series of measures aimed at incorporating the gender perspective in all policy areas within the purview of the administration of the Government of Catalonia and fighting for the eradication of violence against women. We would like to stress that this plan will certainly entail strengthening the National Council of Women of Catalonia and its nearly 400 member entities.

 

On 8 March, International Women’s Day, we reassert the value of sisterhood and feminisms as a driver of change to achieve real, effective equality and bring down the patriarchy once and for all!