The call for International Women’s Day 2018 is for women around the world to #PressforProgress. The Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, former Moderator of the United Reformed Church’s General Assembly and Minister of Wilmslow United Reformed Church, explores why International Women’s Day is worth marking.

Why does International Women’s Day matter? Because the headlines about sexual violence and harassment of women at work spawned by the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood last year are one small part of a worldwide phenomenon that won’t go away until we face up to it and challenge it.

World Health Organisation figures show that about one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Almost 40% of women who are murdered worldwide are killed by their partner.

Violence against women starts even before a baby leaves the womb. In some cultures, what is seen as the shame and economic liability of having a daughter rather than a son has led to gender-selective abortions of female foetuses or to baby girls being left to die.

The resulting shortage of adult women in the populations of some parts of India and China results in female kidnapping and a trade in young girls. One evil leads to another.

Awareness of female genital mutilation is now better in this country but what happens when a young girl goes to family in west Africa, say, during the holidays? She may not return in the same physical state as she left.

And the list of violence against women goes on. They are often the victims of war crimes in which rape is used a weapon to instil fear and submission in a civilian population. Women are trafficked and exploited sexually to earn money for those who control them.

In some cultures, women’s behaviour is seen as a sign of family honour and they suffer terrible retribution if they are accused of stepping out of line. Rape and domestic abuse damage women’s lives in every culture. Enforced child marriage robs girls of the chance to grow into womanhood as they have a right to.

The women at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony sent a strong new message with their colourful gowns: ‘We’re not going anywhere until this climate of violence changes.’ They’re right. This is a Gospel issue. We need to stand with them.