International Women’s Day
Happy International Women’s Day to all the wonderful ladies here!
I have to be honest I sometimes feel quite triggered by this day! I feel annoyed that the message sometimes feels like women are only expected to be respected this one day of the year! I understand that it is a day to bring awareness to the multitude of women who are treated as less than humans throughout the world – did you know 1 in every 130 women are being held in slavery? That in almost every country in the world female children as young as 9 are being forced to get married… of course we should be raising awareness about these horrific things, and doing more to stop it…
But I think that for many of us, we are being told how great we have it and ‘there isn’t such thing as sexism anymore’ or ‘don’t we have a female manager in this company so we can’t be part of the problem…’ But while things have undoubtedly improved we are still a long way from equality! And are companies just rolling out these Happy IWD signs or banners for one day of the year to tick a box, and then go back to not doing any great internal changes to actually make a difference to the status quo?
Here are some realities for you:
Women experienced unprecedented job losses across the world due to the pandemic. One study of employment and income trends in six countries (China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States) found that women are 24% more likely to permanently lose their jobs compared to men.
Wage losses resulting from Covid-19 are disproportionately affecting women. In Europe, for example, women are experiencing a total wage bill loss of about 8.1% compared to just 5.4% for men.
Globally, only 41 million (1.5%) men provide unpaid care on a full-time basis, compared to 606 million (21.7%) women.
On average across the globe, women spend 4 hours and 22 minutes per day in unpaid labor, compared to only 2 hours and 15 minutes for men.
Covid-19 has widened this gap even further. Women are now spending 15 hours more in unpaid labor each week than men.
Very few women are CEOs of the world’s largest corporations. As of the August 2020 Fortune Global list, only 13 women (2.6%) were CEOs of Fortune Global 500 companies—and all of them were White.
A woman in informal employment(e.g., domestic workers, street vendors) earns, in average monthly wages, only 47% of what a man in formal employment earns.
Women in formal employment earn just 79% of what men in formal employment earn globally in average monthly wages.
Facts and research taken from: https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-the-workforce-global/
If you are interested in learning more about the realities I really recommend you read ‘Invisible Women’ by Caroline Criado Perez and ‘Everyday Sexism’ by Laura Bates.
So this IWD I am inviting you to not just post a picture of you with a positive message but to take today to show up for yourself and examine ways you can actually make a difference in your own life. And make a commitment to yourself to implement real changes to better support YOU and your relationship with YOURSELF!
For me I am looking at the boundaries I have set in my relationships and have made a commitment to myself to put boundaries in place that respect my time. I have allowed my boundaries around housework to be blurred and I am doing more domestic work than my partner. It can be difficult to force a change – especially if it has been unbalanced for a time BUT it can be done! And yes you may have to teach some of your household how to put on a washing machine or where the vacuum cleaner lives, but the bigger picture is a life where household chores are shared, where your (pl) children are a shared responsibility and where both of you have time for yourself!
What change or changes are you committing to do for yourself? How are you going to show up for yourself beyond this 1 day?
Sho xxx