As you may already know, International Women's Day was on Sunday 8th March. However, at Offblak, we are celebrating International Women’s month!
IWD is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognised for their achievements! It is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women, who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.
The theme of International Women’s Day 2020 was, I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights.
Issues Women face - Let’s tackle them together!
We continue to celebrate IWD, as the world has made unprecedented advances, but no country has achieved gender equality! We are still fighting to achieve full gender equality in our world
However, change isn’t just about big headline moments, legal victories and international agreements: the way we talk, think, and act every day can create a ripple effect that benefits everyone.
Here are 5 actions to help make an impact!
- Share the care
Commit to evenly sharing household chores, parenting responsibilities and other unpaid work.
Start with a family or household discussion. Identify care needs and domestic responsibilities.
- Demand an equal work culture
Request a progressive work environment through the equal representation of women in leadership and boardrooms, equal pay for work of equal value and education courses on gender equality!
- Exercise your political rights
Women remain underrepresented in the highest political positions. As of 2020, women only hold around 25 percent of seats in national parliaments and account for less than 7 percent of the world’s leaders.
What’s the easiest, most direct way you can make a difference? Vote! And consider voting for women!
Stay informed on upcoming elections and spread the word about strong women candidates. Register to vote if you haven’t yet! Then, hit the polls. (It’s the least you can do, given how hard women fought for suffrage.)
- Teach girls their worth
Girls across the world carry internalised beliefs about their place, worth and role in society as dependant, vulnerable or incapable and are told to act accordingly, reinforcing gender stereotypes and keeping girls from realising their full potential.
It’s hard to unlearn these kinds of beliefs. That’s why it’s so important to start addressing them early. Remind girls in your life that they are strong, capable and deserving of the same respect as boys.
Make sure they know they are more than their appearance: praise them for their intelligence, strength, leadership, athleticism and so much more.
- Challenge beauty standards
Though beauty standards vary from place to place, they almost always promote a narrow, unrealistic vision of femininity.
Women are often expected to devote far more time, energy and money to their appearances. This kind of double standard proliferates the sense that women’s bodies aren’t really their own––that they’re objects intended for public consumption.
Rethink your beliefs on what it means to be beautiful. Treat all bodies as equally valuable and deserving of celebration—regardless of size, ability, or colour!
Let’s make 2020 count for women and girls everywhere.
On another note, women are making huge steps forward in the workplace; they are strong leaders, innovators and are earning more money than ever before. We are slowly forcing closed the gaps between men and women. However, there is still a long way to go. We still continue to step our best foot forward to celebrate IWD and march for women’s rights.
Ideas on how to celebrate this year’s IWD theme? Have your best gal pals over, drink some Future is Pink tea and think about setting small, measurable goals that you could work on during the year in order to contribute to closing that gap shut, in the workplace and in everyday life.
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