Today marks International Women’s Day.
In a time where many organisations are taking a step back from investment in EDI, it is interesting to talk about ‘activism’ and about how we ‘accelerate action’.
Many are bored of hearing about IWD and think that it has gone too far. Others believe that it is become tokenistic or hypocritical or that feminism has served its purpose.
I think that across all aspects of social life, the statistics and indeed people’s stories and lived experiences paint a different picture. Here are a couple of examples – there are countless more!
In terms of people whose decisions shape society, create the rules that we live by and profoundly influence our beliefs:
- Just 40% of MPs are women
- Just 18 of 108 High Court judges are female
- There are three times more men named John running FTSE 100 companies than women, and there are only 19 female CEOs in FTSE 350
- Only one in four front page articles are written by women
In terms of the arts:
- Only 28% of speaking roles in films are for women
- Only 21 out of the National Gallery’s collection of 2,300 works are by women and it took 225 years for a woman (Marina Abramović) to have a solo show in the Royal Academy’s main galleries
In terms of gender based violence:
- 85,000 women raped and 500,000 sexually assaulted annually
- One in four women have experienced domestic violence or abuse
In terms of gender equality:
- The UK was recently awarded its lowest ‘workplace equality’ ranking in a decade, placing 18th in the PwC index of OECD countries
- According to the World Economic Forum, it will take until 2158 to reach full gender parity
It is difficult to accept an argument that says that work towards gender parity is now redundant. In fact, this year’s IWD theme could arguably be said to show that nothing has really changed from times when ‘deeds not words’ was used (i.e. over a century ago).
Importantly, this is not a matter of women versus men and this is not what IWD should be about. Instead, make the day about:
- Understanding that gender stereotypes are extremely harmful to all – including boys and men
- Recognising that women’s issues are not just women’s issues to shoulder and that when women win, everybody wins
- Celebrating and supporting those whose actions have driven and are driving progress
Here’s to taking more direct action, to be proactive about kindness and support and to tackle gender-based biases and barriers with urgency and thoughtfulness!
By Helena Thernstrom, EDI co-lead at The Leasing Foundation
