BY HAMAH HOSEN-
International Women’s Day (IWD) can be characterised by marches, the colour purple, panellists, and breakfasts. No matter how a country, company, or individual decides to celebrate, the significance and importance of the day don’t falter. The theme for IWD this year, Each for Equality, emphasises that to create a gender-equal world, each of us have a responsibility to contribute to the collective action pushing for change. This message is even more significant against the backdrop of the recently published, UN Women report titled ‘Women’s Rights in Review, 25 Years after Beijing’. It highlights more can and needs to be achieved in the area of Women’s Rights. IWD and the messages attached might not seem like a lot, but it can be seen as a start.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 is rendered as our most comprehensive and transformative agenda for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Since then, it is undeniable that great strides and achievements for gender equality have occurred. According to the report, over the past decade, 131 countries enacted 274 legal and regulatory reforms in support of gender equality. Globally, more girls are in school, and the maternal mortality rate has also fallen. Incredibly, these achievements go beyond statistics and are materialised in the number of women role models that have staged the world of politics. We can point to Jacinda Ardern back in 2018, bringing her 3-month old baby to the United Nations breaking social expectations about parenthood and employment. We can also look to Finland’s Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, as the youngest female Prime Minister in the world backed by a coalition government of four other parties led by women. We can also point to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being one of the youngest women to ever be elected to US Congress. The list could probably extend for the rest of this article. Despite this, we have also seen considerable setbacks that can damage the progress that has already been won.
Currently, conflict, exclusionary policies, climate change, and underrepresentation challenge our ability to create an equal world that IWD aims to facilitate. We can even see this within our own country. In 2019, only 2 of the 25 Chief Executives appointed to lead Australia’s top 200 companies were women, with the percentage of women in the senior role slipping from a year earlier. This gender gap is even more alarming when you realise that the entire female AFL Team (25 individuals) get paid $190,000 collectively, whereas an average male AFL player’s salary is $302,104. UN Women’s Executive Director, Phumzilee Mlambo-Ngucka, noted that “despite some progress, no country has achieved gender equality”. Unfortunately, yet clearly, that also includes Australia.
The release of the UN Women report amidst IWD, on the one hand, can be quite disheartening and a reminder of reality. But on the other hand, it signals how the theme and message of IWD are ever more pressing. Each for Equal emphasises that equality is not a women’s issue, but it is an issue for everyone everywhere. It draws on the notion of collective individualism, which refers to the idea that an individual’s actions, behaviours, and mindset can have an impact within the society that they are a part of. It shows how each of us should remain even more determined to work and fight harder to contribute to the creation of a more equal world. Ms Mlambo-Ngucka emphasised that “2020 presents an unprecedented opportunity to turn things around for current and future generations of women and girls”. This can start with IWD.
It can be a matter of interpretation as IWD can act as a conduit for change. The theme and messages that are connected to the day have the ability to facilitate a key item that this is needed for change to occur: A conversation
You might be thinking as to whether words contained in a conversation can facilitate change. But a conversation signals the start in any hope of a shift. A shift in perception not just by women and girls but a shift within societies. A shift in societal expectations and attitudes surrounding gender equality. There remains a glass ceiling to break, and a shift in attitude and mindsets are going to be the tools that facilitates it. This need and importance to change norms and attitudes are reflected in a recent analysis by the UN Development Programme on its Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI). It revealed that almost 90% of men and women held some sort of bias against women. The index also noted that about half of the world’s population feel that men make better political leaders and over 40% feel that men make better business executives. These findings only emphasise the individual barriers, such as attitudes and social norms, that hinder our ability to achieve equality.
Thanks to technology and social media, IWD and its reach can touch more people than ever. Already a number of artists and activists have used their platform to raise awareness of Women’s Rights. But specifically, for IWD 2020, this can be seen in the use of a hashtag for the theme of IWD and a pose that mimics an equals sign. On first glance, it might seem like a strategic marketing move, but instead, what it does is normalise and mainstream the conversation and topic of women’s rights into our everyday. In the lead up to IWD, it became hard to go on the internet and use social media without the presence of a reminder about women’s rights and IWD.
Women’s empowerment and gender equality are essential to global progress
United Nations Secretary- General Antonio Guterres
Additionally, events that were scattered around the world in support of IWD during the week play a role in empowering and inspiring women. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that women’s empowerment and gender equality are “essential to global progress”. Hearing and seeing role models have the ability to motivate and inform women and girls, and also men about the fight for gender equality in our everyday lives. These speaker events talk about how they overcame challenges but also how they are making an impact or contribution for others to overcome the same challenges. This makes it seem more achievable for the everyday person to contribute to the creation of a gender-equal world, as requested by the theme of Each for Equal.
IWD, alongside the report by UN Women and the findings by the UNDP, this should be a reminder that our efforts need to happen all day, every day. As without doing so, the hope of achieving SDGs, the hope of economic advancements, and the hope of creating a gender-equal world can’t be seen in the future. It’s imperative that the messages encompassed in IWD emphasise that the aims of Each for Equal shouldn’t end after the 8th of March.
