On Women’s Day let’s prioritise actions over token events

There will be interviews with female business leaders and politicians. You’ll hear the voices of women on air, maybe even two or three in a row. Social media will be overrun with pithy hashtags and photos about supporting women.

Come Tuesday it’ll go back to normal, like it always does.

Women are not a minority. Women are not diverse. We are just treated as such by the status quo, the system-at-large. Women are in fact mainstream, and should be treated and represented as such.

Women actually are more than mainstream, they are the majority.

In Ireland, there are 978 males for every 1,000 females — that’s according to the latest census from the Central Statistics Office.

Deep flaws within society

This year is no ordinary year, last year was no ordinary year.

Covid-19 has revealed to us the deep flaws in the way our society and economy is structured. And in Ireland and around the world, it has been proven that women have borne the brunt of the pandemic.

A study, commissioned by UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), shows to a 9.1% increase in the poverty rate for women, because of the pandemic.

Prior to Covid-19, the poverty rate was actually expected to decrease by 2.7% between 2019 and 2021.

Women’s equality has gone backwards. And we can’t blame a virus, the virus just exacerbated an already flawed system

Gender pay gaps combined with no childcare meant women have left the workforce in record numbers, meaning a loss of economic empowerment at a personal level but a loss of balance and representation at a professional and political level.

It’s been nicknamed the she-cession.

According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, there were 2.2 million fewer women in the labour force in October 2020 than there were in October 2019.

In Ireland, the National Women’s Council has been flagging these things for months. So in 10 years’ time, we can’t turn around and say: ‘Where are all the women gone? One of these 10 board seats used to be held by a woman.’

We know we’ve a problem now.

“We know that women take most of the responsibility for caring for the family; they earn less, save less and hold much less secure jobs — in fact, overall, women’s employment is 19% more at risk than men’s,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the UN Women executive director.

She also said that the blatant evidence of the inequalities known to us right now should place women at the heart of pandemic recovery.

And how is that going so far?

Media’s treatment of women

Not great, and the media is at fault here.

A report by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation showed a substantial bias towards men’s perspective in news coverage of the pandemic in six countries.

The study sampled 2,100 quotes from 80 publications across six countries showing that men were quoted nearly three times more frequently in the news about Covid-19 than women in the UK, nearly four times more frequently in Kenya, more than four times more frequently in the US, nearly five times more frequently in South Africa and Nigeria and five times more frequently in India.

According to the study, 100% of the Covid-19 response decision-making groups are men in England, 93% in the US and 86% in India.

You could defend the media and say: ‘Well the chief medical officer is a man, so is the deputy, so is the minister for health and the fella before him.’

All true.

But what about inviting a carer on the radio every day? What about having a different mother write an op-ed about homeschooling every Monday? What about having Brazilian childminders talk about childcare?

Feminist recovery

This International Women’s Day, let’s take action instead of being tokenistic. Let’s focus on a feminist recovery, where we use this as an opportunity to bake equality into the fabric of our society.

If you’re an employer, instead of having a one-off token event this International Women’s Day, take action. Look at your maternity leave policy. Ask your female employees what they need. Maybe they want greater flexibility, not a pay rise? Perhaps they want a mentor and a support network put in place. Do they feel comfortable speaking up and out? Have you examined if there is a gender pay gap in your organisation?

If you’re a Joe Soap, why don’t you check your unconscious gender bias? You can do it for free by taking the Implicit Association Test online, as hosted by Harvard University.

You might find that when you spite a woman’s success for her latest book deal or bonus, that you might not have the same reaction were it a man. You could hear a woman on air and think she sounds bossy and aggressive, would you have the same reaction if it was a man?

We all have unconscious biases, and they don’t make us bad people, but we can take steps to uncover them and take remedial action.

If you know a person who’d be perfect for politics, say it to them and direct them to Women for Election. Research shows that women are more likely to run for office when it is suggested to them, whereas a man will self declare

If you know any woman or girl who is passionate about or qualified or experienced in any area, be that epidemiology, astronomy, activism, breastfeeding, civil engineering, financial risks, social media, or tattoo artistry tell them about the Women on Air database. You can sign up to their database, which is then made available to radio producers around Ireland to increase women’s voices on air.

Women are not diverse, nor are they a minority. When their voices and experiences are not heard, they are not included in the public policies drafted by our politicians. And we end up living in a system designed without women, all kinds of women, gay, single, trans, black, migrant, elderly women, in mind.

So this International Women’s Day spare the one-off tokenistic events and the pithy hashtags. Instead take one single action in the direction of a fairer and more sustainable society for all.