On International Women’s Day and throughout Women’s History Month, it’s worth considering and reflecting on the triumph and tragedy of our current state of affairs. As we celebrate the many achievements of women who have broken through to lead and succeed in extraordinary ways, we should also reflect on how far we are from gender parity and commit to doing what it takes to become a more gender equal nation.

Change comes from challenge — and that is the message organizers of International Women's Day 2021 hope to trumpet Monday.

"A challenged world is an alert world," the International Women's Day website says. "We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality."

In honor of International Women’s Day, allow me to quote the statement made by Vladimir Lenin, who presided over the first official March 8th celebration of this day in Russia:

“For under capitalism the female half of the human race is doubly oppressed. The working woman and the peasant woman are oppressed by capital, but over and above that—they remain in ‘household bondage,’ they continue to be ‘household slaves,’ for they are overburdened with the drudgery of the most squalid, backbreaking and stultifying toil in the kitchen and the family household.”