International Women's Day 2020: Building a Gender-Equal World
Happy early International Women’s Day! The theme for this year’s IWD, which is on Sunday, March 8, is “Each for Equal” and is all about building a gender equal world, celebrating women’s achievements, increasing awareness of gender bias, and taking action for equality.
Girl Scouts is doing our part to ensure a more equal future for today’s girls, starting with getting more girls and young women pursuing STEM opportunities. In addition to introducing more than 100 STEM badges over the past three years in cybersecurity, environmental advocacy, mechanical engineering, robotics, computer science, and space exploration, in 2017 we launched the STEM Pledge, our commitment to putting 2.5 million girls into the STEM pipeline by 2025.
With the support of our growing list of STEM Pledge funding partners, we’re delivering more STEM programming to girls, training volunteers to feel more confident about STEM programming, and bringing experts to troops and councils to assist troop leaders in delivering STEM programming.
Beyond STEM, we also want to ensure that today’s girls enter a more equitable workforce more broadly, and our new gender parity initiative, Fair Play, Equal Pay, is dedicated to doing just that. We are leveraging the power and impact of the Girl Scout brand to encourage companies that work with Girl Scouts to take the pledge toward parity and equal pay for equal work.
Girl Scouts has helped build the leadership skills and potential of girls for over a century, but the world they inherited wasn’t always prepared to meet them where they were: ready to lead and expecting to be valued and paid on par with men. Through Fair Play, Equal Pay, we’re not only working to develop girls with the capacity to lead but also to create a world ready for their talents. We want our vendor partners to know that working with Girl Scouts means a commitment to girls’ leadership—both now and in the future—which means committing to gender parity between men and women.
In honor of International Women’s Day, I encourage everyone to post on your social media channels using #eachforequal and say what you will do to help build a more gender equal world. I’d love to see your ideas in the comments below!
Managing Editor at Revista Católica Dallas/The Texas Catholic
5 年All these comments about how easy is for any woman to pursue the professional path she wants and do extra hours like men do to get even with them miss out the big picture: women still have to decide between being mothers or professionals. Childcare is a luxury not all of us can afford and don’t even look into having to raise kids with disabilities, where the absence of respite care is astounding.
Global Sr. Product Director - Cardiology Care Pathway - GE HealthCare
5 年I agree to an extent. Equal opportunity and equal pay should absolutely happen, but without demonizing the other sex. I am GS and Gold Award alum, my daughter is GS and a youth leader, my husband and son are BS and Eagle alum. All of us should have the opportunity to pursue and be paid according to our marketable skills and experience, not be discriminated against because another race, creed, sex or sexual preference, marital status... was or still is unfairly treated. Let's make it right without making it wrong. In the USA there are laws in place with plenty of lawyers where operators standing by if you experience discrimination.
Once a Girl Scout always a Girl Scout!
Content Entrepreneur I Trainer | Technical Writer | Documentation Manager I Technical Communicator ** I make difficult information sound easy for Information Technology teams.
5 年That is the goal. Thank you for sharing.
Teaching & Applying Principle to Business & Individuals to Create Success - It may seem impossible but it's not.
5 年Only one who sees deficiencies is deficient. We are all equal. I have never had a problem getting the pay I wanted, the job I wanted, the life I wanted that was in a field dominated by men - technology.? If men prefer STEM why do you care if women do or not? Up to each one of us to love what we do and if you don't love it it makes you sick. We call it stress.? Women have been 'leading' in the world FOREVER. Just because you can't see that doesn't mean it hasn't been going on FOREVER. Women being Pharoahs, Queens, leaders in science, writing, painting, blah blah blah - the list is long and endless.? Hedy Lamarr is a great example.? Beautiful, talented movie star, beautiful talented scientist and inventor.? It's all good. Let the little girls figure out what they want to love to be and let them be it. Not every little girl wants to be involved in STEM. It's ok. There are men who do. We work together and love each other and our accomplishments.? My two cents of course! Blessings to you!