Opinion: Mark your calendars if you haven’t already, International Women’s Day is coming up on Friday 8th of March. You may be thinking this is just another blog post from a company trying to do their due diligence when in fact it isn’t; we are here to call those people out.
When I got asked to write this blog post firstly, I could not tell you when the day was on the calendar and then I thought… but why?? We don’t see people continue to advocate any day other than on this date. We have our say then like everything else it gets lost and forgotten until it comes up again a year later.
Now we aren’t saying we don’t do our part because we do, we are a team of all women who work predominantly with woman owned or run businesses. Our entire work is based around relationships and trying to lift our clients, small businesses and woman wanting to grow, so in our everyday work we champion woman in every aspect.
Since 1975, this day has allowed us to see how far we have come as a sex, but it is also confronting and highlights what our goals are moving forward. The focus has always been equality for women; from voting to the gender pay gap – women have faced multiple challenges and damn we look good while doing it! But what has been done since then?
I am a Gen Z and in my generation people are constantly jumping on the next trend (look at TikTok as an example), there is just so much going on and the information overload means nothing gets focused on deeply – unless of course it is your life’s mission. It’s just society; things get forgotten and people jump to tick the box and feel like (or portray) they are doing good. I can’t speak for everyone but most people under 25 don’t what to think about IWD as there isn’t enough being shown, maybe it is just because woman achieving and making power moves don’t like to gloat unlike men.
However, what I have noticed, is many brands mark the day to talk about what they are doing to celebrate, but that is it! Once the day passes there is no follow through, and the efforts only stand until people forget a week later. It projects as lip service, show face and then forget about it!
What got me thinking is, are we doing enough as a society to profile this? If brands want to play their part, it is time to start pulling them up and holding them accountable. As women we need to keep pushing them to be better, as a consumer, as a client or as employee.
2024 is the year for transparency and we believe it is ok for brands to be honest and admit that they don’t know what to do to make change. We would have more respect for that than to promise the world and give no follow through.
The global theme this year is ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.’ We know times are tough, but businesses have the responsibility to do their part in making sure the pay gap closes. Continue to challenge where you can and as an individual support woman-owned businesses or businesses following through with what they say, to boost their sales and support fellow change-makers.
Let’s make this year the year we stop the lip service. Not only for the recent generations but for the future generations of woman to come.
Much love,
India