Today, International Women’s Day, is a day where we’re given the opportunity to both celebrate all the wonderful things that women do and are, whilst also reminding people of how it is, still, in the 21st century, we don’t do enough of that celebration – at least, not enough to ensure that women, throughout the world, are valued equally.

Well, actually, maybe part of the problem is that we shouldn’t have to have the ‘permission’ that a special, annual, one-off day affords us: Every day should be a day where we all, as a society, value our women: where we LISTEN to what women are saying; where we make an effort to challenge the age-old societal norms and prejudices that mean women and their voices still aren’t quite valued equally.

For FTWW, this means working every day to combat taboos which prevent girls and women in Wales not speaking up about gynaecological health issues, therefore delaying diagnoses; it means continuing to challenge sometimes unconscious bias which prevents women’s pain being taken seriously, again delaying diagnoses; it means constantly striving to draw attention to, and overcome, the generations-long failure to invest in research into the many health conditions – often mainly affecting women – which remain shrouded in mystery, myth and subsequently cause harm to those women affected.

For us, for now, for those reasons, every day HAS to be International Women’s Day. There is still so much to be done – and undone!