International women’s day: Let’s do more than just celebrate.

March 8th is the day each year that we celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world. International Women’s Day is also associated with a call-to-action for individuals, communities, organizations, and countries to hasten efforts around women’s equity and equality. Because of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month each March, I often hear people mention that March is the time to focus on “women’s topics” and “women’s issues.” Yet, Hillary Clinton’s famous words, spoken decades ago at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, often come to my mind: “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.” Indeed, women’s rights, topics, and issues are human rights, topics, and issues. So even though March is the month to remember, celebrate, and discuss topics deeply connected to women, it is important to remember that these dialogues impact all of us. And elements of this celebration and call-to-action may look different for women of faith and their faith-based communities