Has #IWD had its day?

You know it's February by the ramping up of pink branded merch, selfies of self-hugging women, and images of hearts made out of hands. The build-up to International Women's Day on March 8th is well underway.

IWD 2024

This year the theme, to be fair, seems less kumbaya-ish, and more practical, but how effective will it be? These are the five key areas targeted areas of activity by the United Nations:

• Investing in women, a human rights issue: Time is running out. Gender equality is the greatest human rights challenge, benefiting everyone.
• Ending poverty: Due to the COVID pandemic and conflicts, 75 million more people have fallen into severe poverty since 2020. Immediate action is crucial to prevent over 342 million women and girls living in poverty by 2030.
• Implementing gender-responsive financing: Conflicts and rising prices may lead 75% of countries to cut public spending by 2025, negatively impacting women and their essential services.
• Shifting to a green economy and care society: The current economic system disproportionately affects women. Advocates propose a shift to a green economy and care society to amplify women's voices.
• Supporting feminist change-makers: Despite leading efforts, feminist organizations receive only 0.13% of official development assistance.

Performative PR

Over the past couple of years I had started to wonder whether it was time to step back and reflect on the value of this event. Intended to celebrate women's achievements, for me it had stopped feeling completely right which is what prompts me now to ask if IWD has had its day? Or are there still miles on those IWD tires?

How much of the noise is pink washing and performative corporate hoopla, and how much is strategic and effective.

I was slow to catch on to this. Last year thanks to Australian Project F,? I learned that when you Google ‘International Woman’s Day’, the top search result is not the?official UN Women landing page. What you do find is www.internationalwomensday.com, which hits the number one page ranking slot. This is a site run by a privately held company named Aurora Ventures.

This website has no affiliation with the UN Women’s IWD. It is in fact a PR and advertising company.

This would account for why I have been feeling that some of these themes were global PR stunts. That was because they actually were.

Gender jaundice

Let's put all this into context. While these high-profile much photographed pink-washing corporate bashes are being held, women are still experiencing:

• unequal pay? (About 20% pay gap – probably more in certain sectors)
• reduced access to senior jobs? (24% of CEOs in SMEs, 7% in FTSE 500)
• sexism (100%)
• sexual harassment (Over 40%)
• bullying (60% of bullies target women)
• gaslighting (74%? domestically)
• Violence? (1 in 3 women, or one woman or girl killed every 11 minutes globally)

Take a look at the painting of a 20 year-old artist. This is her LIVED experience.

Avoid pink washing on IWD

So what can your company do to avoid pink washing on IWD:

• Avoid commodifying or exploiting the women’s rights movement by resisting the temptation to feminise your branding in a very stereotypical way, whether in the use of colours, and/or images. Instead, showcase a demonstrated and serious commitment to advancing women’s rights.? In the next weeks, the airwaves will be awash with pink images, self-hugs and hearts.
• Pay your speakers if you are hosting an event . This should be against a backdrop of equal pay for equal work.
• Ensure your events are diverse?with a whole range of women participants.
• Amplify women’s voices: use your corporate voice to amplify the voices of your female employees who have made significant contributions in their roles.

• Sponsor women for senior roles in your organisation. Organisations sponsor male employees organically, but with fewer women in senior roles it needs systemic changes to bring this about for women employees; Integrate a Sponsor Tree into your system to make this effective.

• Involve men. When men participate in IWD to support gender equality, they contribute to building a more inclusive and equitable society for all. Promoting strategies around allyship to shift damaging cultural attitudes, stereotypes and behaviours will accelerate gender inequality which holds both men and women back. Create training programmes to build awareness for men around the subliminal ways they exclude women.
• Support women-owned businesses. Companies can support women-owned businesses by purchasing goods and services from them, partnering with them on projects, and promoting their businesses through marketing and social media channels.
• Invest in female run businesses. Data and research prove that there is a significant gender gap in venture capital funding. Even though women are underrepresented as entrepreneurs to begin with, they receive a disproportionately small share of VC funding: 2.3% for all-female founding teams and 10%. 4 for mixed-gender founding teams.
• Invest in women in your organisations. Focus not only on women in leadership roles but the pipeline as a whole. How inclusive is your hiring process? Set targets and reward leaders for increasing gender balance and examine closely the areas which consistently under perform. If some are deliberately sabotaging progress some serious measures may be required.
• Donate to women’s organisations: Companies can donate to organisations that support women’s rights and empowerment, such as organisations that provide education and job training for women, support targets of gender-based violence, and advocate for women’s rights and equality.

Is International Women's Day still an effective tool for raising awareness, realising change, and celebrating the achievements of women worldwide?

You tell me.

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