International Women's Day 2023: Perspectives From Women in L10N

“i want to apologize to all the women

i have called pretty. ?

before i’ve called them intelligent or brave…” ?

- rupi kaur ?

In line with the original mission of International Women’s Day, we thought that while it’s important to celebrate the achievements and progress women have made, it’s also important to bring attention to issues that still impact women on a daily basis.

For this reason, this year, we honored women by giving them a platform to express their thoughts. Taking advantage of our amazing network of women from all over the world, we reached out to ask them a few questions. Their answers were smart, insightful, brave, vulnerable, and honest.

Please enjoy the wisdom of these strong women:

While many of these women listed their mothers and grandmothers as their role mothers, just like Michele Yeoh at the recent Oscar ceremony,?others mentioned a friend, colleague, or public figure: politicians, artists, and writers. It’s important to realize that a role model can be found in everyone, and keep in mind that you may be someone’s role model, even if you don’t know it.

“Lucy?Alexis Liu is my role model. Lucy Liu’s star now adorns the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making her only the second Asian-American woman ever to receive the honor. Lucy's dream was to be an actress, and she overcame many difficulties. I like her survival instincts, perseverance, and determination. And she is a powerful woman.”?@Ally Yuan?–?Sales Director (China)?

“A role model for me would be Hillary Clinton for her honesty and courage.”?Sybil Zhang?–?Senior Localization Engineer (China)?

“Barbro Andersson. She is a competent long-time translator, and she LOVES being able to help people to read and understand in their own language. She is always very positive and is there for the "team" be it another freelance translator or an agency. She goes that extra mile and sets a great example. I know I can always count on her.”?Christine Mac Donald – Swedish and English Linguist (Sweden & USA)?

“Frida Kahlo. She allowed herself to be seen and known. She had physical disabilities, was proud of her Mexican heritage, was queer, and was a political activist — all of these in the early 1900s when women didn’t even have the right to vote. She’s, to this day, an icon of feminism. She expressed herself in everything she was regardless of society’s approval, making her one of the most prolific artists of her time. ?Viva la Vida!”?Alma Gomez?–?Community Director (Mexico)

“Former US First Lady Michelle Obama has been a good female role model for me because she embodies both strength and vulnerability. She encourages women to achieve self-actualization through both individual initiative and communal connection. I believe this emphasis on balance is crucial to achieving meaningful and sustainable progress.”?Violet Senderai?–?English Linguist (Zimbabwe)

There’s a general consensus that the trend is going in the right direction, and while the inequality gap is reducing, there’s still a lot of work to do to eradicate it. In many places, women are still expected to maintain the household, are paid less than men for equal work, and are victims of violence. On top of this, women are expected to educate and bring awareness of gender bias to people in power and be the solution to the problem.

“There is a long way to go in China to fight for equal rights, although it is getting better. Personally, I can feel there is a gap between generations. As the young generation, girls need to not only “educate” themselves but also their parents. And when you look at society, there are many bad social events in recent years that tell us we need to do more for real equality between the two genders.?There is a song called "小娟" by 谭维维 that I?think is quite representative.”?Raine Li?–?Project Manager (China)?

“I would say that I’ve seen a net positive change in mindset across the board (for the communities I affiliate with). In those spaces, I think there is more communal empowerment but also disconnect and misunderstandings, naturally. I was taught by society to see compassion as a strength and then retaught to see it as a weakness, which I’m still trying to process. That being said, I still lean strongly toward compassion. I believe it’s important for women in my generation (millennials) to have empathy for women across the board, including all classes, ethnicities, older and younger women, and the LGBTQIA + community. There is still work to do and room to grow, but in general, I think that communities of women across the world are becoming stronger, individually and as a unit.”?Alexis Dawkins?–?Copywriter (USA)??

“In 2022, the?Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE)?announced that women represented only 17,7% of seats in the parliament.?Research from Plan International Organization?in 2021 showed that 67,2% of girls interviewed (14 – 19 years old) were responsible for learning and doing the house chores against only 31,9% of the boys. So, I would say Brazil and my community still has a long way to go when talking about gender equality. Of course, there is progress, but we are still very far from reaching equal treatment at work, in politics, and at schools.”?Giovana Cury?–?Brazilian Portuguese Linguist (Brazil)?

“I think gender equality in my community has been well-reflected. I don’t feel any disadvantage because of being a woman. I hope to see more ways to improve work-life balance. Improving work-life balance can benefit both women and men.”?Chelsea Han?–?Project Manager (China)?

“I'm quite fortunate to be surrounded by strong, driven women. Most of the women I know are either fearlessly following or working towards their dreams, whether in their career, family, or other aspects. Going forward, I hope that the issue of mental load can be addressed to further gender equality. Often, men ask their partners, "how can I help?" rather than taking the initiative to assess what needs to be done and acting on it. This places the mental load of acting as a "manager" on their partner, in addition to the labor itself.”?Eden Lunde – English Translator (USA)?)

Short answer: yes, in different ways. It’s an industry that has been welcoming to women by focusing on talent and capacity over gender and by providing flexibility and opportunities for professional and personal growth. On the other hand, localization is responsible for multinational companies’ messages worldwide. Paying close attention to how these messages are worded and presented, being intentional about the meaning behind each word, and filtering out gender bias in language, are how we, as the localization community, can help fight gender inequality.

“Localization represents the convergence of multiple cultures, and this convergence presents an opportunity for people from all over the world to learn from each other. Progress is achieved through synergy, and the multicultural synergy that the Localization industry enables allows people to gain intersectional insights and employ these in the various efforts toward gender equality within their communities.”?Violet Senderai?–?English Linguist (Zimbabwe)?

“Yes, I think words are extremely powerful. We have a lot of responsibility for the wording of products and services and how their message gets across. We need to support our clients by shaping their message into an inclusive narrative, which in the long term also helps our community.”?Alma Gomez – Community Director (Mexico)

“I think we play a large role as we are the ones that decide how to express something in the foreign language or translate it into English, and you can word it in such a way that it is positive or negative in one direction or another. I think it is very important that we do a good job on translation and localization to give a true and positive picture for the future of us all.”?Christine Mac Donald – Swedish and English Linguist (Sweden & USA)?

“The Localization industry opens opportunities for women to do what they love from wherever they are. Whether a woman is caring for others at home and doing Localization when she has free time or if a woman is working in Localization full-time as her main source of income so she can support herself independently, Localization absolutely plays a role in reaching gender equality.”?Eden Lunde – English Translator (USA)?

“Definitely. I believe localization has an important role in gender equality in both directions; it can either support or harm the cause. It all depends on how themes are approached when localized. Unconscious gender bias, as well as race and class, is something real. As humans, we all have different views of the world and situations based on our upbringing and experiences. It is important to be aware of it when localizing content so it is not biased to the translator’s point of view. The more we work on reducing our unconscious bias, the easier it makes to implement a more inclusive language and, therefore, a more equal approach to everyone. I do believe it starts with the words.”?Giovana Cury?–?Brazilian Portuguese Linguist (Brazil)?

At Clearly Local , we believe that achieving gender equality is everyone’s responsibility. It’s men and women working together, listening and believing in each other’s experiences. It’s institutions creating inclusive and safe environments. It’s each of us educating ourselves and becoming real allies instead of sitting back and enjoying our own limited privilege at others’ expense.

A special thanks to those who contributed to this article and trusted us to share their words with the world.