Emer O'Callaghan: A day to celebrate every woman

Take a bow, ladies, as this Saturday is International Women’s Day.

What a fantastic time to celebrate all that makes us women in the 21st century: regardless of your age, your size, your religion, your marital status, your profession, this day is a fabulous acknowledgement of everything that makes us female.

I started writing this beauty page for The Echo over 16 years ago now, and every week I write about beauty and skin and health tips for women, and I do love when people email me, or write, or leave messages on my clinic phone, to say how much they enjoy the reads - that’s a job well done for me.

I take great pride in my work and in anything I put my name to.

Every day at Emerald Beauty Clinic, I work with women of all ages and from every walk of life, and when you are a beautician as long as I am, there really is very little that would shock me. I’ve heard all the stories, the heartaches, the career dramas, the office politics, the rebelling teenagers...

While we are all so different in so many ways, the one thread that does hold us all together is we are all women, trying our damndest to juggle far too many balls and keep the peace everywhere.

Every woman is so much to so many, we are daughters, sisters, granddaughters, nieces, grandnieces, girlfriends, wives, partners, best friends, work colleagues, neighbours, clients, customers, members of teams and communities... we are so much to so many, and yet we are all someone’s baby once too.

As women, we naturally mother, but what I’ve learned in my many years now doing this job is that even the mothers need mothering.

So, with Mother’s Day only around the corner, treat your mum to a facial - she doesn’t need any more flowers or gifts, but many mums over 70 have never even had a facial, and what a fantastic experience it would be for her to try something new.

We women can forget how far we have come, but many today are over- stretching themselves - that Rushing Woman Syndrome I spoke about a few weeks ago, which you can learn more about in my video up now on our Emerald Beauty Clinic Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok pages.

Modern life is really taking its toll on females today.

Oprah Winfrey famously said, as women, you certainly can have it all, just not all at once.

Look how far we have come, it’s hard to believe now there once was a time women were not allowed to vote or that we had a marriage ban, which meant once you got married you could no longer work.

And this suited many who made marriage a career choice, whereas fast forward to today and my generation are married, running busy homes and lives, while still working full time out of the home.

So it’s no surprise that today’s women can often look at their mother’s era in envy of how great that would be: to be a stay-at-home mother, to just run the house. We are doing that after coming home from a full day’s graft.

Some women won’t get time to sit down till 10pm, and I am very mindful of this with my clients . I see how they value their monthly facials so much as it’s just the only time they ever get to stop, and be still in a quiet, calm, peaceful environment with no one calling for them.

This is why the self-care movement has become so big, because women now know full well if they do not prioritise that monthly appointment for themselves, it will never happen.

While some women have amazing husbands and life partners that work with them as a team, many do not, and let’s not forget all the single parents and widows out there, as my mum was at 36, raising five kids alone. For them, I truly have nothing but admiration and respect.

Many of my retired clients tell me how they look at their husbands when they retired, and how the woman did not have that same freedom as she still had her full time job of running the house and having the meals on the table. Alas, the job of a wife and a homemaker has no retirement policy unfortunately.

The reality is life is tough and life comes at you, and we all need support and good people in our corners.

Remember, too, that our world is what we make it. Put out enough love and positivity and it will change the world. We forget that, as women, we are the nurture and nature, and we can collectively change things.

We certainly need more women in politics, we need more women leading from the front, we need more compassion and humanity, the kind only we women possess.

Many readers will know I grew up the youngest and only girl with four older brothers, and it was instilled in me young how amazing it was that I was female. I love being female, I never once wanted to be like the boys in any way. I used to love being smarter than the boys, seeing how they do things, and thinking, he is doing that the hard way!

I remember my mom saying to me one day: “Emer, will you ever just act a bit helpless for the boys’ sake?”

We women do so much juggling of busy work and family life, trying to look good and stay fit and healthy also. We are fighting age, time and gravity, and the majority of women are doing so with a smile on their face and getting the hell on with it.

Real women empower other women, they don’t pull them or knock them down, they build them up - give a sister a break.

We are living in a world where ageing is not celebrated like it should be. Most women lie about their age and that’s not right, we should celebrate every year.

I love the actress Helen Mirren for that, she says every year should be celebrated and we should honour ourselves as women and our bodies for every decade it comes through.

In other cultures, they put the elders of every family first.

You know, we are all so unique and beautiful in our own way, and everyone is not meant to look the same.

This over-done fake plastic face we see so much of today is not empowering women, it’s masking their true selves. I only ever want to look like myself, and I embrace ageing as a privilege, as so many never see old age.

RECOGNISING THE WOMEN WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US

I feel it is only right to pay some respect for the very many women who have forged the path ahead for us women of today.

The opportunities we women have today those of yesteryear could only dream about, these women were fantastic, they made do with so little.

They had no education about their hormones or how their body changes, whereas today there’s so much said about the menopause. Spare a thought for your ancestors who went through all that with no HRT, no supplements, no good diet, no luxuries like we have now.

Ah, how easily we all forget.

POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS FOR WOMEN

I love all things positive - negative people drive me mad. Every day, we have a choice as to what attitude we have, so choose wisely.

I am a firm believer in the power of the mind and positive thoughts. There are just some of my favourite female empowering mantras I use,

• IF THEY CANNOT SEE IT, THEY CANNOT BE IT: This one is very important to show little girls other females who are succeeding and doing well in life. We are all role models to younger girls today.
• THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT WE AS WOMEN CAN ACCOMPLISH: So true, this one is a reminder of the many glass ceilings us women have had to smash through to get a seat at that boardroom table, or get that promotion to principal or captain. Limits mean nothing to any women who has a fire and determination in her to be a trailblazer in this world.
• SHE BELIEVED SHE COULD AND SO SHE DID IT: A reminder to us all of the importance of self-belief and self-worth, to believe and back yourself. It’s often ourselves we compete with, but believing in yourself is vital in this life.
• WOMEN ARE LIKE TEABAGS, YOU NEVER KNOW HOW STRONG THEY ARE UNTIL YOU PUT THEM IN HOT WATER: Well, ain’t that the truth? As women, we have amazing strength that carries families through the hardest of life challenges, but we can get exhausted from always being the strong ones so it’s important to take that load off your shoulders too, and share your feelings with people who love and trust you, who know being strong all the time is exhausting for anyone.

I have come to the conclusion that, really, all so many women need is a rest, a good hug, and to be told they are doing a great job.

That’s what I do and say to so many of my clients, and you see by their faces how much it means to them. Isn’t that a beautiful thing? A few kind words cost you nothing, but you really could make someone else’s day by doing so.

I saved the best one till last, it’s my favourite and I know many reading this will relate to it too and it’s...

YOU CAN’T KEEP A GOOD WOMAN DOWN! 

Ain’t that the truth? Celebrate you and all that you are as an amazing, beautiful, strong, capable woman on International Women’s Day 2025.