By Praise (Okunade) Ayowole for Invisiblites
Dear World,
The month of March arrives with a predictable, pastel-colored fanfare. My inbox is full of “empowerment” discounts, corporate brunch invitations, and LinkedIn carousels featuring women in blazers staring heroically into the middle distance. There are hashtags for equity and digital stickers for “Girl Bosses.” It is a season of high-octane performance, when the world pauses to hand us a bouquet of platitudes, takes a commemorative photo, and then politely asks us to return to the boxes they have built for us.
The irony of Women’s Month lies in this disconnect. We spend thirty-one days celebrating “progress” while the structural and social reality of womanhood remains unchanged. The taglines change, but the underlying truth does not. A woman is still defined by permissions from others – judged for her ambition, penalized for her biology, and tethered to a patriarchy that praises her resilience only because it refuses to lighten her load.
We are told to “lean in,” yet when a woman displays the same ambition as her male peers, the language shifts. She is no longer “assertive”; she is “difficult.” She is no longer “visionary”; she is “calculating.” We celebrate the CEO on the poster, but in the breakroom, the woman who prioritizes her career over domestic expectations is still whispered about as though she has committed a moral failing. Society still acts as a gatekeeper, reminding her that her professional height must not threaten the traditional hierarchy.
This irony plays itself to the fullest in the realm of choice. We talk of autonomy while the physical and mental labor of family planning remains a solitary female ordeal. It is the woman who navigates the side effects of hormones, tracks cycles, and is scrutinized for her decision to have children or remain childfree. If she chooses the latter, she is called selfish or incomplete. If she chooses the former, she is often sidelined by policies that view motherhood as a liability rather than a fundamental part of human experience. We give her a flower on March 8, but rarely does a workplace or healthcare system acknowledge the reality of her body.
Year in and year out, the buzzwords change, from “Empowerment” to “Inclusion” to“Inspire Equity,” and now “Give to Gain,” yet these linguistic shifts rarely translate into the betterment of womanhood. Women still earn on average just 89 cents for every dollar men make and perform the bulk of unpaid domestic work, a burden that limits time for paid work and career advancement. Globally, women occupy only about 30 percent of managerial roles, and reproductive policies are debated in rooms full of men who will never live with the consequences of their votes. We are drowning in awareness while starving for systemic change.
As the curtains fall on yet another Women’s Month, the truth persists. Women do not need a month of performative appreciation. We do not need taglines that look good on a tote bag but mean nothing in a boardroom or bedroom. We need the lived reality to be the foundation of policy. Until a woman can be ambitious without being labeled, childfree without being pitied, or exhausted without being expected to smile through it, these celebrations are distractions. Let the flowers wilt. Give us the agency to define our own lives every day without the weight of the world’s judgment as our constant shadow.
Sincerely,
A woman tired of celebrating a facade
Praise (Okunade) Ayowole is a poet, creative, and health content writer based in Nigeria. Her work explores physical, emotional, and social realities through reflective and narrative storytelling. Her writing has appeared in the Ibadan Poetry Festival (IPOFEST) Anthology, Lady Dynamique: A Poetry Anthology by Women, Just ImaZine (Issue 12), Silly Goose Press, and Low Hanging Fruit. Beyond her literary work, she is a nurse and public health professional.
Photo Credits: Microsoft Copilot
Such a call for action. Beyond the banners, hashtags and taglines.
This is brilliant writing as much as it’s a blaring truth, a call to working action not performative action.
This piece is beyond exquisite!!! I’m both moved and blown, to be honest.