To every woman who has and is pouring into women’s equality, whether by choice or circumstance, knowing how easy it is to walk away, this fight is a cry for dignity, to be seen as a person before being measured by the legacy of a role; to have the opportunity to stand on your own two feet, and for generations you will never meet. Both matters.

Women should be equal and respected 365 days of the year because our concerns are real and not too difficult to understand. Women’s rights are human rights. We can’t afford to have luxury views on the progression of women’s equality on International Women’s Day, as this lens suggests women are making great strides, which is inaccurate. Though it is a day to celebrate resilience and progress, it is also an opportunity to ask deeper questions about the structures that shape our societies because progress for women and girls depends on accountability, conversations, and calls to action. Equality is not just a rights issue, it is a stability issue.

It’s been one hundred and fifteen years since the first International Women’s Day, but still, the structures of modern life disproportionately burden women, conditioning us to believe that it’s our responsibility to hold everything together, to work, and simultaneously ask society to prioritise our needs, which often are not seen as priorities. I have experienced and witnessed the struggles many women endure, clinging to the hope of a fairer system, a brutal fight leaving us exhausted as we come to a visceral understanding that, although we’re led to believe that change is on the horizon, true equality may not be realised in our lifetime. Instead, it may be our daughters’ daughters who finally witness it, as current projections indicate that closing the global gender gap will take an astonishing 123 years.

Even after many years of progress, women and girls still aren’t equal under the law anywhere in the world. According to the latest UN data, they have only 64% of the legal rights that men do. This inequality affects every part of their lives, including safety, education, jobs, family life, and economic opportunities. We have to accept that there can be no justice when half of the population is left behind. When we are not equal under the law, we are not equal.

We need systems and laws to change, not ones that perpetuate this neglect by sidelining the needs of women because of what we choose not to see: the masculine code the world operates by.

So, this month of March, women’s month, we honor the woman who cries in private and smiles in public, the women who keep giving even when no one asks if she is tired. The women who refuse to give up on her dream of equality, we celebrate you because the weight of your resilience did not collapse on you. It’s no surprise to declare that the system is indeed rigged, but you knew that from the beginning, and it still didn’t stop you.

Sarah Stephen is a Luxury Real Estate Advisor advocating for women’s financial freedom.