If there is Something that Needs to be Broken this Year

Just like that, March is upon us. In more recent years, this month has started to feel alot like December jammed with engagements and events competing for our attention.  

Along with that is all the brand attention adding shine (and glitter) that has succeeded at turning pink-washing and rainbow-washing into extreme sports, often predicated on the ability to be first to market.  One of its many victims has been International Women’s Day.

When Clara Zetkin—head of the Women’s Office of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and Luise Zietz — in Denmark in 1910, proposed the idea that every year, women in every country would gather on the same day to celebrate their achievements and press for equal rights, is this what we have today what they had in mind?  In Australia, the day has been honoured since the 1920s courtesy of the Militant Women's Movement of the Communist party. It does not have passive origins. It was a forceful movement demanding improved conditions for working women:

The Movement's activities included: organising women's conferences in Sydney and Melbourne; organising demonstrations and disrupting public meetings convened by bourgeois women's organisations; activity in the Women's Unemployed Worker's Movement and the Militant Minority Movement and running candidates for municipal and State elections. They organised the first Australian International Women's Day rally in Sydney on March 25, 1928.

In 2022, you might need to blink a few times witnessing how much has changed in this last century and how bourgeois some of the events themselves have since become. In 2013, academics Barbara LeSavoy, Director, Women and Gender Studies Program at State University of New York and Garret Jordan, Graduate Research Assistant,  published The Capitalist Hijacking of International Women's Day that following its centenary examined how far the departure from the early socialist origins of the day in working class Europe had been.

In 2017, the former Director of Communications of WHO, Christine McNab, had also carried out an investigation into an elusive and shadowy site that had emerged on the scene - internationalwomensday.com. McNab had a well established career with clients such as UNICEF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO and UN Foundation, so was well acquainted with the role that the UN played since 1945 when the United Nation (UN) charter proclaimed gender equality as a fundamental human right. Then, by 1975 during International Women’s Year, where the UN sanctioned March 8 as IWD. The UN has been ‘guardians’ of the day since, or at least until the internet started to send everyone towards the masters of SEO success. 

The site was registered in 2001, content on it began to emerge in 2003, and by 2017 their catchy campaigns complete with visual assets and a pithy hashtag, dominated the online chatter, making up almost 70% of the online references. It is well managed, accessible and always the first to market with campaign content that has convinced the top organisations and educational institutions around the world to jump on board. 

But who is behind it all?  The site itself is behind a GoDaddy proxy. McNab, on her blog, shared the results of her investigation into the consortium behind the site. It was initially made up of mostly executives from British Petroleum (BP) along with at least 10 other corporate partners from various corporations such as EY (Ernst & Young), PepsiCo, Vodafone, Metlife to name a few. Corporations that didn’t exactly have spectacular gender equity records of their own. To further legitimise their venture, they named charity partners for their fundraising efforts - Catalyst and the World Wide Association for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).  It certainly helps to designate a global charity partner with 10 million members when trying to produce appealing social media content.

The themes chosen by this venture however, never align with those set by UN Women, and there is no sign of them ever having attempted to support or endorse the work of UN Women, let alone assist with funding of their programs. In fact their site goes so far to make it quite clear that IWD is “not country, group, nor organisation specific. No one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women's network, or media hub is solely responsible for International Women's Day. The day belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.” A statement that is no doubt in response to past interrogation of what interests they actually represent.  

On the flipside, UN Women sets annual themes that align with critical global programs such as the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, such as this year’s : Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.  A theme so critical given women are increasingly being recognised as more vulnerable to climate change impacts than their male counterparts. Their vulnerability is never more evident than representing the majority of the world’s poor and being more dependent on the natural resources which climate change threatens the most.

I am certainly willing to acknowledge the success of internationalwomensday.com: it is every marketer’s dream. They do highlight and educate on the continuing inequities that exist and make it as easy as possible for all organisations to get involved, all the while generously providing all the optics needed to being seen to support gender equity. The operations have become so sophisticated that they can even connect you with suppliers to create your events. They have even set their own standards for gender equity efforts and organisations can apply to “them” (a consortium of large corporations remember) to feature as a “Prime Employer”.  The self-serving tactics are wildly clever and unchallenged. Throw in a few kids, especially Black and brown ones, and you get the whole package.

So why does it matter? Don’t these movements evolve? Things aren’t the same as they were a century ago.  All entirely true statements, however, the question we need to ask when we are in attendance at these gatherings, eating croissants, listening to inspiring stories of women who have achieved significant success, often against the odds, is whether we are celebrating a story about “we” or is it a story about “me”? At a time when community activism and collective action has sustained populations through pandemic and economic crisis, is the next evolution of IWD a move away from individual achievement embraced by corporate interests and towards embracing the actions of those raising the tide for all boats? 

What are the questions being asked in that room when there is no one there to report it? This week at least I was heartened to hear that Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of New South Wales, while attending the European Australian Business Council International Women's Day Brunch, at The Ivy, Sydney, used their opportunity during questions to challenge the highly successful, elite business women in the room to use their power and position to raise the voices of the nurses, teachers, caregivers, refugee and migrant women etc who were not in the room. Making it clear that what she witnessed during her time in a courtroom was a very different side to society than the gathering that she was at and that these intersectional identities could not be ignored in the fight for gender equity.

We all do have a choice for showing up for International Women’s Day.  When I was recently invited to take part in a group photo featuring this year’s salute, I declined. I shared some  background as I have done here and as a team we chose to smile for a photo that recognised the work we had completed together without the gestures. 

This year could be the year you too make IWD more than a day, cupcake and a hashtag.  I hope you do.

*The commercial theme set by this entity for 2022 is “Break the Bias and the hand salute is arms held at a cross at the wrists reminiscent of one of the best films about Black Excellence ever made.

PS the only time you will see me pulling this year’s hand salute will be while affirming “Wakanda Forever”.  Not everything is supposed to be for all of us.

PPS the author of this piece is not a member of any political party.

PPPS the author acknowledges the conflict of interest they have as a member of WAGGGS and the frustration that comes with it.

we are the mainstream, with support from the Inner West Council will be taking part in a series of IWD Collab(Orate) - Learning Journeys - featuring a diverse range of interactive events and workshops that will provide an opportunity for Inner West women and girls to connect and build community. 

we are the mainstream’s annual IWD event will be online this year! Join us on March 26th.