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We’re Tired Of The International Women’s Day Discourse

Lauren McGaun

International Women’s Day has come around for another year; a day to celebrate our successes and just how far we’ve come in society. But we’re tired. Tired of the constant discourse that we should always feel ’empowered’. Tired of the audacity of many multi-million pound businesses to platform women in their IWD events without paying them a penny. Yes, we may have come along way since the suffragettes, but it’s not enough to have one day celebrating gender equality without having the proper policies in place to achieve this. 

“Invisible inequalities continue to plague society.”

Don’t get me wrong, International Women’s Day has always had a vibrant energy – women coming together from all different backgrounds, united in the fact they are enough and their gender should never define them. Yet, the day has always felt lopsided in the fact that all this energy, effort, and motivation is coming from the part of women. Is this not counterintuitive to the whole point of International Women’s Day? Now more than ever, men should be speaking up and calling out the changes in society which still need to be achieved so that women feel comfortable in all spaces; yet many continue to be remarkably silent.

Some argue that these inequalities no longer exist. ‘Look at how far we’ve come’, many utter. ‘You’re privileged to be in the position you’re now in’ – another incredibly familiar response. But we must not accept this as enough. Whilst a lot of the obvious gender discrimination may have been eradicated, invisible inequalities continue to plague society.

Take the issue of women in executive positions for example. The World Ranking of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) found in October 2020 that only 14 of the 193 United Nations’ members have a woman in the highest position of executive power – that is less than 10% of men in power. It may no longer be the case that women are barred from professions or receive constant critiques of their workplace look – as was a familiar pattern just a few decades ago – but we’re certainly not at the point where women don’t have to push much harder than men to be in a ‘top’ job.

For some women, the inability to achieve executive positions lies in their own lack of self confidence and recognition of their ability to aspire for higher roles. But for many, other barriers continue to face them – pregnancy being one.

In the 21st century, it’s not uncommon for women to be fired for taking extended periods off for childcare. Many women also find maternity leave sets them back when returning to the workplace when they are taxed with catching up on months of missed work. This time out subsequently has a knockback effect on their confidence and ability to progress into more senior roles. Not only is this discrimination damaging for the much needed diversity of workplaces, but it also has irreversible effects on women’s mental health. A recent landmark Baylor University study shows how pregnancy related inequalities for women caused increased postnatal depression, lowered birth weights, and increased numbers of hospital visits for babies.

“We must look at giving those at the very bottom a leg up first rather than taking a very broad brush approach to the way all women should be treated.”

As MP Stella Creasey pointed out in Parliament last month, the instant discriminations that are associated with pregnancy discourage many women from entering public office in the first place, with the majority of female MPs either childless or older with grown up kids. Why are we still at a point where our dream career should be determined by our desire to have children or not?

Creasey has also threatened legal action against the government after their pledge to extend the maternity leave of female ministers – at the detriment of many backbenchers who are yet to have the same privilege – highlighting that you shouldn’t “treat maternity like a benefit, like a company car”.

Instead of International Women’s Day being an event which groups all women’s experiences together, we should therefore be doing much more than this. Of course, women from middle class backgrounds suffer far less discrimination in society than those from a lower income household. Therefore, in order to achieve the desired equilibrium in society, we must look at giving those at the very bottom a leg up first rather than taking a very broad brush approach to the way all women should be treated.

The Coronavirus pandemic has inevitably halted many of the diversity plans set pre-pandemic. With remote working becoming a routine fixture for many, the lines between work and home life for women are increasingly blurred. Samantha Smith, CEO of finnCap and the first ever female CEO of a City stockbroker, pointed out that “pandemic-induced home working has seen lots of women effectively working a double shift, combining full time jobs with home schooling and caregiving.”

“Given this current climate, is it therefore any wonder that women are frankly exhausted?”

Enforcement on the release of gender pay gap data has also been set back for another six months, allowing many companies to hide the true extent of their inequitable workplace figures. Whilst the headline figures show that the gender pay gap is shrinking, issues of pay are still striking when it comes to senior executive positions and those in middle management. Data from the chartered management institute in 2017 showed that only 26% of women became directors and only 36% occupied senior management positions. There is clearly a long way to go in encouraging an appetite for women in the executive world and opening the right spaces for them to thrive economically.

Given this current climate, is it therefore any wonder that women are frankly exhausted?

Year after year, we are told to celebrate just how far we’ve come and how proud the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst would be of the diverse and tolerant society we now live in. And yet, it’s no wonder that this rhetoric comes across as empty words for many women. Discrimination in workplaces, online, and in the media is still rife for many. It may not be as bad as it was half a century ago but that doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

As for the day itself, International Women’s Day is packed with talks, panels, musical performances, and a myriad of other media platforms aimed at strengthening the empowerment discourse. Yet the exploitative nature of many corporations means that many women are forced to give up their time for free, perpetuating an already bad pay cycle for women. The diversity in many of these panels is also questionable. With Zoom calls now consuming our everyday lives, panels that encompass all or a majority of women of colour are a rare surprise – a sad truth in our predominantly-white-centered age. How can we say that we are opening spaces for women and encouraging diversity when the virtual panels themselves don’t even reflect the true diversity that we’re after?

“We should turn the day into more of a substantive policy discussion of what is still to be addressed.”

And the silence from many men on International Women’s Day is palpable. Whilst no one would expect – or want – an IWD panel to platform all men, surely a contribution from a male speaker on the issues that need tackling to combat gender equality would be welcome. After all, this is an issue that affects all of us in society and is something we all need to address – not just women.

Mo Kanjilal, a writer and campaigner working for Watch This Space, agrees: “IWD panels are not going to change the world. Especially if it’s women talking to other women who all agree with each other. We need to have this conversation out in the open with everyone, and we need commitment from everyone that there has to be actual change.”

“Instead of spending on marketing for International Women’s Day, I would rather see money put into changing work for women.”

This isn’t to say we should pack International Women’s Day in altogether. It has its benefits: notably the space it creates for women to speak up and address their concerns in a society where they feel too overlooked to speak out on the other 364 days of the year. But now is the time for us to reshape International Women’s Day. Instead of the discourse being all about what women have achieved, we should turn the day into more of a substantive policy discussion of what is still to be addressed – in effect a roundtable.

We’ve come a long, long way as a society, but there’s still a long long way to go.

Lauren McGaun

Featured image courtesy of Molly Adams on Flickr. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.

Lauren is a freelance journalist at BBC Politics. She helped set up EJ as Co-Founder and used to be Editor in Chief for over a year. Most evenings you will find her sipping Aperol Spritz whilst watching the news or a documentary.

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