In the context of International Women's Day, the University of Cauca continues with our campaign titled ‘It’s not just a day, not just a month, it’s a lifetime,’ through which we aim to highlight the work of each and every Unicaucan woman who daily builds the University.

To commemorate International Women's Day, it is necessary to remember the events that have made history within their struggles, while acknowledging the existence of struggles in colonial settings that have paved the way and are in the process of appropriation and reivindication.

The commemoration of March 8 has its origins in 1857, when female workers from a textile factory in New York took to the streets to protest against harsh working conditions. The workers reported that their wages were less than half of the men's wages, and their conditions were precarious.

And although this event we are recounting sparked the need for labor and workplace safety reforms, just recently, in 2015, it became a trend in the film industry to see how women working in this field are still experiencing the same story. Isn't that striking? Following the hacking of Sony Pictures, it was revealed that many actresses and directors received much lower compensation compared to their male counterparts, not to mention many other workplaces where gender inequality affects the dignity of female workers.

In this context, and not to look too far, in many municipalities in the department of Cauca, women still face many barriers in accessing their fundamental rights. From a decent salary to the lack of hospital infrastructure for accessing specific procedures, not to mention the lack of technical, legal, and human rights capacity with a gender perspective among the staff.

Likewise, discrimination is exacerbated when women’s lives are subject to oppressions based on gender identity, sexual orientation, class, ethnic and cultural affiliation, racialization, and ableist logic, among other forms of oppression. That is why, from this regional institution, we believe that education is the path to social transformation, as we dream of every generation of women enjoying the rights that have been historically and systematically denied to other women.

Therefore, through the campaign ‘It’s not just a day, not just a month, it’s a lifetime,’ we seek, through a collective memory exercise, to recognize women for their valuable daily contributions in all the activities carried out within our university community. This is because, in all scenarios, women contribute to this transformation and to the access and recognition of their rights.

Thus, this commemorative exercise, which began in 2023, allowed us to highlight 31 pioneering Unicaucan women—agents of change and narrators of history—receiving a very special reception.

For this reason, this year we return to continue honoring many more, as Unicauca is a diverse setting that recognizes that women, through their various activities and daily practices, contribute to social building and transformation. This connects with our roadmap ‘For a University of Excellence and Solidarity,’ which is committed to working so that women, in their diversity, do not have to fight for their rights, but rather that these rights are guaranteed.

Finally, we invite you to immerse yourselves in this important campaign, to get to know each and every woman who, through her work, contributes daily to the aspiration of living in a fairer society, while also generating processes of recognition of others, based on respect, historical, and collective memory.

It’s not just a day, not just a month it's a lifetime and it’s built daily! This is how we celebrate and commemorate the #UnicaucanWomen who have made and continue to make that great dream called University a reality; a University that is Heritage for All.