Opinion: 'Why I hate International Women's Day'

Today - Wednesday, March 8 - marks International Women's Day and don't I know it?

In the run-up my inbox has been filled with emails from a variety of companies asking us to run articles on women, highlighting them for doing jobs in what could traditionally be described as male-dominated industries.

To me, they smack of being patronising.

We run stories every week on the amazing achievements of women in our community - we do not need a specific day to do so.

I'm just going to say it: I hate International Women's Day.

To be clear, I don't hate what it stands for - a gender equal world - but why have we got a single day to shout about that? Why isn't every single day International Women's Day?

I consider myself a feminist. I am lucky to be surrounded by incredible female colleagues, friends and family, who inspire me every day.

But it's the 21st Century and we're still no closer to equality. Times have moved on and still we have a day to celebrate the achievements of women because they STILL are not comparable to those of our male counterparts.

I agree wholeheartedly we should #EmbraceEquity. We should be talking about gender parity every day - not just some drab day in March - until there's no need for International Women's Day at all.