Jessica Stern is executive director of OutRight Action International

Wherever you are in the world, news headlines and social media feeds are likely to tell you that today is International Women’s Day. But what that means will vary greatly. For some, it is an opportunity to draw attention to the still prevalent challenges to achieving gender equality. For others, it is a day to hail traditional gender roles. Yet for some, it is a day like any other day; one that doesn’t interest them.

And for me? For me it’s about inclusivity and diversity – the exact concept that this day embodies. Or rather should embody. International Women’s Day should be about inclusivity of the diversity of women – whether lesbian, bisexual, trans, intersex or queer (LBT+); women of colour; women from a diverse social and economic backgrounds, religions and families; women with a range of physical abilities; and gender non-conforming people.

In other words, today is about all of us.

It is no coincidence that sessions of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the foremost intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality, begin around International Women’s Day.

This year, it starts on March 11. But with growing populism around the world, the CSW has become a fierce battleground between those who seek to take ever more steps towards gender equality and those who oppose progress.

Inclusivity and diversity are at the centre of this battleground. Read more via Reuters