IWD? Maybe don't bother??

So another year another IWD. Another high profile event replete with pink cupcakes and empowering hashtags. I have been around this space a while and unfortunately that can make one cycnical. There can be an element of tokenism about IWD. Companies feel the need to do "something". Even if that something does not in any way align to their values or their company culture. Let's face it some places are not great to work and some places are definitely not great to work for women. An "always on" macho culture still prevails in certain organisations and yet that is often coupled with a complete lack of self-awareness which makes them want to do "something" for International Womens Day.

So here are some red flags to look out for:

1. If your marketing material uses stock imagery of a woman or people who look nothing like the women/ people in your actual organisation, please don't use it. It's kind of offensive.

2. If you have to parachute in senior female leaders from other organisations because you dont have any senior female leaders yourselves, please don't bother. Concentrate instead on why your pipeline of female talent is so poor.

3. If you haven't completed a gender pay gap report maybe focus on that instead rather then the cupcakes?

4. If a number of senior women in your organisation do not wish to take part in your IWD activities maybe spend time sitting down with them and asking them why (it is most likely because your workplace is rife with misogyny and they are sick of not seeing any change).

5. If you expect the women in your office to organise IWD as part of the unpaid labour they are already spending time on then please don't. All you are doing is putting time pressed women under more pressure.

It is ok not to bother with IWD. You don't have to do something. Not everyone cares about making the workplace more equitable. It is better to own that then pretend. At WorkJuggle we do recruitment across lots of different types of organisations. I remember in one place the older man in charge said he had no time for that "woke nonsense". But I respect that because at least you know where you stand. And in fairness to him while in his own head he was old fashioned it was actually a pretty humane place to work because they treated people decently. We placed a number of female candidates there and they all enjoyed working there. On a similar note as much as I despise Elon Musk at least he is not pretending to care about something he doesn't. I can't imagine there is an IWD event happening in Twitter today and I respect them all the more for it. Own who you are. Take meaningful action not meaningless conversations.

Pass on the cupcakes.

Reading

I read my mother's copy of "The Women's Room" by Marilyn French at the completely inappropriate age of 10. It made a little feminist out of me and has informed my world view ever since. In school I read the greats, Simon de Beavouir, Germaine Greer and later Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Caitlin Moran. They all help articulate the niggling thoughts I had about society and how it is constructed. This week I came across a book which did the same in a way I was not expecting. It was "Real Self Care" by Pooja Lakshmin, MD . She writes powerfully about the commodification of the wellness industry. She aposites that manifestations boxes, crystal healing and affirmation cards are a distraction from the systemic issues embattling women.

You cannot manifest yourself out of a 50 hour work week, ten hours spent commuting and childcare costs which suck up forty per cent of your take home pay. No crystal will solve for this. They are sticking plasters on a broken leg, The real issues hurting women in the workforce today are insane childcare costs and even crazier expectations around what women should do and how they should present themselves. Everything is time, energy and money. Dr. Laskshmin argues that all of that is better spent having the more difficult conversations around childcare costs and the burdens of unpaid labour. If you are going to buy a book for IWD, then I think this would be a good one.

Watching

"The Dry" on RTE player. I never really binge watch but I kind of did with this, watching the entire series over three days. Very funny and very clever. Really good home grown drama.

Listening To

Nothing. Too busy reading books and watching "The Dry" !

Till next week,

Ciara