Business
Is celebrating International Women’s Day enough?
Although, International Women’s Day has been a long-standing day to herald the achievements of women and likewise to bring to the fore the continuing disparity and gender inequality women still endure, but is it enough?
After the women’s rights protests began in 1911, the 8th of March became a special, internationally recognised occasion. For over a century, it has been the day we put women on the map. The focus for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world” and the campaign theme is “Choose to Challenge”.
The occasion celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political efforts made by girls and women around the world in shaping a more equal future and to forge a recovery from the pandemic.
Over the last year, women all around the world have stood at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis and some of the massive contributions that they have made to carry the weight of the pandemic will be celebrated today. They have been our online educators, our scientists, our caregivers, our innovators, our community organisers, our healthcare workers and some of them have even been our most impressive and efficient national leaders in fighting the spread.
In fact, women make up 70% of the global health workforce, and a vast majority of the more successful countries in rapidly, decisively and effectively combating the virus are led by women. This includes the leaders of Government in New Zealand, Slovakia, Iceland, Germany, Finland, Ethiopia and Denmark. Yet, despite these exemplary achievements, women are only Heads of State and Government in 20 countries worldwide.
Although, International Women’s Day has been a long-standing day to herald the achievements of women and likewise to bring to the fore the continuing disparity and gender inequality women still endure, but is it enough? We celebrate, carry and share the lessons taught and the stories told to us for the empowerment of women.
Yet, when we only have this one dedicated day to recognize the success, value, power and accomplishment of women, it raises the question: what can we do on the remaining 364 days of the year?
When we want to get fitter, lose weight or learn new skills, we practice with repetition, go to the gym regularly or install new daily habits, so we cannot rely on a single day to bring about the cultural change we want to see in society.
We still have a lot of work to do in forging equality for women around the world. In 2018, a survey conducted by the HIMSS Women in Health IT found that 94% of women feel that their work goes unnoticed. We at Preneur Mag endeavour to do our part to reduce this statistic by celebrating, empowering and acknowledging not only the women in business but all the other women who accomplish amazing feats every day.
This means waking up each day choosing to challenge and call out instances of gender bias, stereotypes and inequality, and actively celebrating the achievements women have made. Collectively, Preneur Mag believes that if we integrate the sentiment of International Women’s Day into our everyday, then we can help create the all-inclusive world we all strive for. Happy International Women’s Day to you all – and every day.
