This weeks thoughts:

So it was International Women’s Day a few days ago and although there were many amazing initiatives, I think that we should remember the main purpose of it. Some of the things that people were doing were a little surface level and reminded me of a small piece that I wrote down around 3 years ago (I think that shows how far we have to go).

*Disclaimer this is not a topic that I am an expert on but I just wanted to share some of my thoughts*

A story:

So 3 years ago, I was watching a football 🏈 segment for International Women’s Day where they would cut to different MALE football players asking them to name a female figure that was important in their lives. Veering off, yeah shouldn’t they be focusing on female players 🤔 although they may have been on after I turned the TV off in protest. In fact, I think that they did have segment on pathways for women in football so this isn't targeting them I just think that it is an interesting point to note. Anyway back to the story, the players would say things like “My mum is important to me because she always took me to footy practice” or “My sister has always supported me through my sporting career” etc. Now I am not saying that this is bad, women do deserve recognition for what they are doing and I get that they were trying to do smth for women’s day which is a step forward but for a platform with such a large male dominated audience and reach I felt like they could have done better.

Purpose:

Remember that UNESCO defines International Women’s Day as celebrating progress towards gender equality, empowering women and recognizing the accomplishments of people and movements that have helped to emphasize the importance of women’s rights.

Purple washing 💜:

Meaning: When institutions present themselves as being supportive and dedicated to feminist beliefs and rights when they actually haven't committed any initiatives to creating change.

I also think that purple washing is an interesting thing to also consider so I have linked an article here that goes more in-depth abt what it is.

A little rant:

Coming back to my football segment, when people say things like: she was a mum, sister, wife etc. I don't think that it quite grasps what the purpose of International Women’s Day is. Sure, it is recognizing and uplifting women but it is not necessarily addressing the key issues around women’s rights like gender inequality, violence against women and reproductive rights (unless they are tied to stories about some of these things) which should be the main focus. It also doesn’t matter what a woman's (or anyone's) association to someone is, it's that she is a living person and that should be enough. Her connections/ contributions aren’t her value. People almost convey the opposite message when they say that she was someone to them because of whatever reason. It’s kinda as if they are saying that she matters because she is connected to or has helped someone.

Conclusion:

I think that in general, for recognized international days (not just International Women's Day) the key question that should be addressed and acted upon is why? Why are we having this day? And what should we be doing to address this why?

Resources to check out:

Instagram: @feminist, @feministvoice, @feministhistory, @refinery29au

Podcasts: Real talk about feminism, Unladylike, Hey girl, BBC woman's hour

Organizations: Equal pay today, Womankind worldwide, UN women, Malala fund

Side note of some good news:

For International Women's Day there was a return of the Gender Pay Gap Bot on Twitter which not only is such a vibe and cool idea but it really called out companies with stats on their gender pay gaps.

Hope you have an empowering week

C