International Women's Day is celebrated this weekend, and the corporate world is gearing up for its annual parade of pink-hued business breakfasts.

ut while the day itself has become all but lost in a sea of commercialism, it does provide us with an opportunity to take stock and see how far we've come - and how far we've yet to go. We asked some of our favourite Irish Independent writers if they feel that women are winning the equality battle, and if modern-day feminism is fit for purpose...

Martina Devlin - Columnist

Remember when mobile phones were the size of a brick, a computer took up the whole room, and there used to be glass ceilings in the workplace? Mobiles and computers have shrunk - unfortunately, the glass ceiling hasn't gone away, although cracks had been put in it. A lot done, more to do.

A glass ceiling isn't inevitable. And it isn't indestructible. But embedded bias has to be challenged and not just in terms of gender, but class and ethnic inequality too. A monochrome society is a moribund society. Quotas are one way to deliver change. Some people disagree with them. Not me. They have existed for centuries. Men: 100pc of the power. Women: none.

In recent times, we have seen quotas in the political system begin to make an impact, although slowly. Last month's general election failed to add significantly to numbers of women in the Dil, unfortunately. But at least they are being chosen by parties to contest elections and that's an advance. Shifts are happening and not just in politics, but leadership generally. Women have closed the education gap and made strides in the professions, but more remains to be achieved. For example, the gender pay gap needs attention.

On the plus side, there are laws now to protect women from workplace harassment. 'Manels' on radio or TV programmes or at public events are pilloried. They haven't totally vanished, but are increasingly rare.

So, yes, in case you're wondering, I'm a feminist. I engage the F gear. Not least because I'm also an equalist. I'm keen for everyone to have the same chance at living their best possible life, regardless of the circumstances they were born into. Being a feminist is wholly compatible with calling for an end to direct provision for asylum seekers and to children growing up in homelessness; it's also compatible with wanting to see more Travellers in third-level education instead of the current minuscule numbers.

Feminism in action helped to deliver marriage equality and abortion reform in recent times, just as it brought about voting rights a century ago. But women didn't do this alone. They were helped by fair-minded men who were equalists. It's important to remember that.

The support of other women, both practical and emotional, has been a constant in my life and I'm grateful to them. Support doesn't end with you as the recipient, however. Always be thankful for it - and pass it on.

Katherine Donnelly - Education editor

There were many bright dawns in the 1970s, lit up by the promise of equality in a dark country for women. How dark? Some examples: up to 1973, many women had to retire on marriage; children's allowance was payable to fathers. Then, as if overnight, there was an agenda for change, sparked, at home, by the Irish Women's Liberation Movement.

It helped too that Ireland joined the EU in 1973 and, along with the economic benefits, came a new, progressive social order, where women would be equal. Or would they?

Equality was the buzz word. One EU directive after another brought a legal right to equal opportunities and equal treatment for women, or did they? Equal pay for equal work was a simple idea, but job titles were used to muddy the waters and the battles continued with many women forced to rely on the concept of equal pay for work of equal value to win their case.

Legislative change is of limited value if cultures don't also change. That was shamefully evident in Ireland in recent years, when female academics, employed in what should be the most enlightened sector of all, were forced to go all the way to the High Court to get justice for being overlooked for promotion. A half century on, the battles from the 70s are still being waged and that is why in today's campaigns against sexual harassment and assault, Harvey Weinstein's conviction may be seen as a new dawn. The experience of the past 50 years tells us that for feminism to flourish, it is not only women who need to sign up, but men too.

Melanie Finn - Entertainment editor

It's all very well marking International Women's Day with a barrage of 'woke' events as brands jump on the bandwagon and try to capitalise on the annual event. But apart from trending hashtags, what does it actually achieve? There remains a whopping 14pc gender pay gap between men and women - the same depressing statistic as last year's IWD.

It's only when you become a mother and face the logistical nightmare of trying to source affordable childcare that you realise the workplace is a man's world. I was unable to return to my company on the scheduled date after having baby number three last year as I couldn't get a creche place for him.

And when myself and my husband sat down and did the maths, me leaving work would have been the sensible option. Thankfully, I managed to make it back into the office - but too many women don't because the supports are simply not in place. Most men are still being paid more than women for exactly the same work and due to the childcare crisis, this trend will continue as they are usually the ones to stay at home - and are then the lower paid member of the household.

So forgive me if I don't get out the cheerleading pom-poms this Sunday. Companies are legally obliged to pay employees the same rate for the same job, regardless of gender; but all too often this is ignored and we continue to see the knock-on effects of this inequality.

Katie Byrne - Columnist

I was raised by a Derrywoman and I think it had an impact on the way I've experienced feminism. Derry is a matriarchal society and that's the way I was brought up. I never felt impeded by my gender. Truth be told, I always considered it to be something of an advantage.

Of course, age and awareness has broadened my world view. And while I like to think I've had few personal experiences of gender inequality, I'm well aware that I've led a pretty sheltered existence. My career has largely been in female-dominated magazines, so I've never had a male colleague with whom to compare my salary. I've never worked in the corporate world where there are glaring pay inequalities. I've never run for election where gender bias is rife.

I'm also childless, so I have no experience of being a working mother or negotiating the inherent inequality of a system that pushes women between a rock and a hard place.

I'm a feminist - but I often wonder if I'd be a more strident feminist were my life circumstances different. Likewise, I often wonder how I'd negotiate the balancing act that mothers are faced with every day.

Would I ultimately have to choose between a career and a family? And if I did choose to work, how much could I pay the person - invariably a woman - who looked after my children? This is what troubles me most about the pay gap. We want to be paid the same as men and yet we're paying childcare workers minimum wage - or expecting our mothers to give us a dig-out for free. Feminism has made an immeasurable difference to the lives of women, but the capitalist 'have it all' myth has left behind a troublesome legacy. Our fight for pay equality relies on female wage slavery - and the sooner we address this elephant in the room, the better.

Caitlin McBride - Style channel executive editor

Growing up, my mother raised me to believe that I could do anything. I could be anything. There was no difference between me and my male peers; so much so, that I believed it all through my life until I didn't. It took me reaching my 30s to realise the differences in how men and women are treated. I spent much of the last year interviewing women for my book The Day That Changed My Life, an eye-opening experience which made me appreciate the strength of women and trigger a sense of responsibility to become more honest about my own experiences.

Professionally, I don't talk about the way I'm criticised in different ways, most of which is around my appearance. I don't talk about the man who 'joked' about raping me without a condom. Or the men who have taken to calling me "fatso" on Instagram. Or on Twitter, the men who criticise me because I don't write for - or through - the male gaze, and therefore must be a complete idiot, as they tell me so frequently. Personally, I don't talk about the ways in which my life has been irrevocably shaped for the worse simply by being a woman.

But I do celebrate the ways being a woman is special, including the built-in sisterhood that only improves as you grow older. I love any chance to mark that sisterhood and International Women's Day gives us all a chance to do that. I have always worn my Feminist 'F' card as a badge of honour, and I always will.

Bairbre Power - Fashion editor

I cut my teeth on Germaine Greer's seminal The Female Eunuch, and in the 1980s, the feminists I was involved with represented a rainbow of hues - from housebound homemakers working on causes once the homework was done to local activists and academics. However, none of us could have dreamt of how the power of the bishop's crozier would be swept aside so emphatically and we welcomed legislative changes like the Marriage Equality Act 2015 followed by the landslide vote for abortion rights in 2018.

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Bairbre Power. Photo: Kieran Harnett

Kieran Harnett

I covered Mary Robinson's 1990 inauguration at Dublin Castle for this newspaper and it was electrifying as the country's first female president praised the women who voted for her and had not only rocked the cradle, but rocked the system. But now I'm a mother and a grandmother, the feminist in me recognises just how much more needs to be done. Let's start with disgraceful inequality in pay and then fix our gaze on that infamous glass ceiling. It needs more than just a spring clean - it needs to be well and truly shattered.

Meadhbh McGrath - Fashion writer

When International Women's Day rolls around each year, the same debate flares up over whether it's necessary any more. The argument is always some variation on the claim that the battle for equality has been won. Harvey Weinstein has been convicted! JLo can play the Super Bowl at 50! Abortion is legal! And in the US, six women ran for president this year - sure, only one of them is still in the race, and she's unlikely to win the nomination, but she's there, isn't she? You go, girl!

If that seems like a win to you, then it strikes me your definition of equality is far different from mine. Perhaps for some, the 'big issues' have been resolved and they can take that privilege for granted to the detriment of the most marginalised women. All of those individual issues, from online harassment to the lack of women in positions of power to maternal mortality, are symptoms of the biggest issue: the inextricably linked systems of sexism, racism and economic inequality.

To me, the goal of feminism isn't just to be equal with white men. It's about ending systems of oppression that affect different women in different ways, particularly those who aren't white, straight, cisgender, conventionally attractive and able-bodied.

International Women's Day may be a feel-good clich, with its corporate lunches, girl-power nail art and vapid slogans, but at its origins is the fight for women's rights, feminist fury and a serious discussion around how to eliminate power divisions. In its current form, the message of IWD is effectively defanged, replaced by the watery 'empowerment' of motivational tote bags or brunch and bubbles. The sooner we get back to those activist roots, the sooner we'll start to see some real wins.

Aoife Kelly - Entertainment channel editor

My first memory of the notion of feminism came from my mother, a Mayo woman who had lived and worked much of the 70s in London. By the time I was 17, in 1995, the third wave of feminism was beginning to swell. There was a sense of anarchy in the air, or so I gathered from Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, Cosmopolitan magazine and, later, Sex And The City.

They celebrated ladette culture, casual sex, girl power. It seemed terribly empowering - we could be loud and lairy and macho and take on the lads at their own game. So this was what feminism was about! I remember my mother arguing this was not, in fact, what feminism was about. But what the hell did she know?

Quite a bit, as it turned out. She encouraged me to build a career so I could support myself financially. "You know you don't have to get married and have children," she said, apropos of nothing one day in my Leaving Cert year. It had never occurred to me that this was a viable option.

The equality battle is not won, and it's not women's alone. It's not about exclusion or pitting one sex against another. In the 90s, I considered myself a feminist and I consider myself a feminist today. And as the mother of a three-year-old boy, I'm more conscious than ever that feminism is a movement that needs men. My hope is that he grows up in a world where equality and tolerance are the norm, and, if not, that he at least espouses those values in his own life.

Gabija Gataveckaite - Reporter

We still have a long way to go in terms of equality. There are still so many cases of men being paid more than women for the same job or being promoted more often than women.

However, even when we lessen the pay gap, we have to work on the inequality which is ingrained in society. It's going to take generations to finally get rid of internalised misogyny. A very simple example is social media - women are much more likely to get abuse. Female politicians who lost their seats after the recent election spoke out about how the hate is "on a different level" for them. Behind a computer screen, faceless trolls aren't afraid to express the most vicious views.

I'm 21, and I don't consider myself a feminist per se, simply because the term has so many negative connotations and has become misconstrued. It has almost become a dirty word which triggers intense arguments, both in person and online.

The true message of the movement which is responsible for winning women their right to vote has been lost, which is a shame. Our focus has to be equality - not just for women, but men too. Suicide is the biggest killer amongst young men. One of the core beliefs of feminism is to encourage men to be more open with their emotions, but this core belief often is lost in translation.

Equality must come from within ourselves first - gender quotas to tick boxes simply aren't enough. It is up to all of us to begin with ourselves to build a fairer, more equal world for all genders.

Irish Independent

More here:

International Women's Day: 'The myth of having it all has left behind a troubling legacy' - Independent.ie