Tiresome tick-boxing? How to make International Women’s Day count

Where do you go with International Women’s Day (IWD)? Hard-hitting invective about the inequalities that still face females? Tub-thumping punches up at the patriarchy? Pointless social media platitudes that are more about hijacking hashtags than anything meaningful or thought-provoking? Or maybe impotent hand-wringing about the horrors being inflicted on women in the world’s troublespots – and behind next door’s closed doors??

At a time when even the concept of gender is in flux, it actually feels a bit odd to talk about female inclusion at the exclusion of other measures. Although, I guess every diversity has its day.

So on IWD, as women, we’re expected to say … something. So, in the workplace, we celebrate talented female colleagues with a nice post on LinkedIn. Their pals flick a heart emoji at it and off we all dash, taking with us a fleeting dopamine lift, which evaporates as we’re late for the school run again or simply getting on with being brilliant in the boardroom. Just as brilliant as we were the day before, when it wasn’t International Women’s Day.

Because it’s hard to find the bandwidth, the inspiration or even the guts to tackle what’s really on our minds. Even with a theme – this year’s was Inspire Inclusion – what can we actually do? How can we move the conversation on? That dilemma is what makes it even more refreshing when someone hands us the scope and support to do more.

Alongside my work for Wrapped, I have a temporary contract on the internal comms team for McCain Foods. And it was my honour to write and produce a six-part podcast series, broadcast internally in the week running up to International Women’s Day. We agreed on a simple brief: talk to women around McCain GB about what shapes their careers. What, in 2024, is it like to work in a role where most of their colleagues are men? No axe to grind, nothing to prove – just open the conversation.

Although McCain GB has a female president, and plenty of brilliant women on the payroll, we wanted to focus on engineers, manufacturing and sales; sectors that are male-dominated, even today.

And what an utter joy it was – from start to finish.?

I spoke to a woman who was dazzled into a manufacturing career by a ‘magical’ childhood visit to the very ordinary baked bean canning factory where her dad worked. Hardly the fairytale that our little girls are generally fed, lavishly coated with a spoonful of Barbie-scented sugar. But she shook off the gender norms and followed her own dreams. Today, she gets her hands dirty in the real world – but that sense of wonder still colours her career as a reliability engineer, on the road between McCain’s various UK plants.

Then there’s the woman who’s carved herself a niche far beyond her official role as a plant administrator – while also thriving as a single mum, a biker and a fitness fan, with tens of thousands of TikTok followers. Oh, and she recently rebuilt the front end of her BMW after a crash. With the finest manicure I’ve ever seen.That’s living life on your own terms.

And the woman who, as a girl, was handed the runner-up prize in a golf tournament. She came first, but only got the runner up prize – because she wasn’t a boy. But, far from letting that injustice embitter her, she decided it was better to be in the game, so she shouldered her clubs again and eventually found herself at a crossroads, choosing between a career as a professional golfer or a career in manufacturing. Giving up would have taken away that choice.

There’s the woman who learned resilience and grit on the road in the north east of England, selling to tough foodservice clients. Having been invited to take part in a women’s coaching circle, she’s now a committed ambassador for inclusion of all kinds, paying her confidence lessons forward to other colleagues and always championing her heartfelt values.

And the woman engineer who’s been a manufacturing leader in three continents, taking cultural curveballs in her stride (yes, even a move to Scarborough!) and who found fellowship and wisdom in one of the same women’s coaching circles – the first time she’d worked closely with multiple female colleagues. Fearlessness in action.

I wish I could play you their inspiring, generous, bold, confident, warm and inclusive stories. The challenges they’ve overcome and the resistance they still, occasionally, face in their lives. But the podcasts aren’t signed off for external use. You’ll have to take my word for it.?

I’ve never felt so invested in – and connected to – International Women’s Day. And even though I can’t (yet?) play you the series, you can uncover and tell your own stories. Every single one of us can take time to go beyond the surface and open the conversation with women we know. We can relate our experiences and inspire others through radical honesty.

Like McCain did, if you ask the women you know what’s on their minds, and create a safe space for them to tell their stories honestly, you’ll discover inspiration, courage, wit and wisdom. By the bucketload. Every single time.