International Women's Day: #Choose to Challenge

International Women’s Day (IWD) was started in 1911, during arguably one of the most tumultuous periods of history for women. Only four countries participated, Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland but events were still attended by more than one million women and men. In 1975, the United Nations celebrated IWD for the first time.  

This year's theme #ChooseToChallenge encourages us to stand up and challenge the status quo. It is our responsibility as individuals to challenge inequality when we see it so that we can all benefit from a positive societal change.  

Since 1975, IWD has served as a platform to raise awareness of the plight of repressed women across the world. Despite this, according to the 2020 World Economic Forum report, it will be at least a century until the gender gap closes. What’s more concerning is that this could be delayed even further due to the impact of coronavirus.  

The Covid-19 Effect  

According to various sources, including The Lancet, women are disproportionately bearing the socio-economic brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. This is largely due to women still assuming the role of primary caregivers.   

2 in 5 working mothers have either already stepped back or are considering stepping back from their career to cope with pandemic parenting.  

The unpaid care and domestic work shouldered predominately by women is still an endemic burden in our society. Many women have found themselves trapped in an endless cycle of cooking, cleaning and caring whilst enduring the lockdowns of the past 12 months.   

Women are also more likely to work in sectors involving large amounts of physical contact. Tourism, retail and aesthetics, which all employ a predominately female workforce (around 75%), have experienced some of the largest job losses.   

Even when figures are adjusted to account for female-dominated industries, women were still found to be more likely to lose their jobs. The pandemic has created a lose-lose situation for women in the workforce. Despite women only accounting for 39% of the global workforce, they account for 54% of overall job losses.  

And it’s not just female employees that have suffered. Amongst the self-employed, women have been 35% more likely to experience income losses than their male counterparts.   

COVID-19 could be the most regressive event for gender equality in recent years with a lasting impact far beyond the end of the pandemic. It's all of our responsibility to ensure that this doesn’t happen.   

A New Normal  

After we return to some sense of normalcy, the contribution of women for our survival in this pandemic must be acknowledged. 70% of healthcare workers globally are women, and this number rises to 77% within the NHS. It’s clear that women are not only the primary caregivers in the home but are also the primary care providers for our entire society.   

Our Co-Founder, Michelle Mellor, believes more needs to be done to acknowledge the often-silent contribution of women to society:  

“a lot of value in our society is created by the unpaid caring work in the home which totally underpins our ability to work and create economic wealth.  

It’s a fact that remains, women are still the primary caregivers. It’s women looking after elderly parents and children as they also cook, clean, shop, iron as well as home school all whilst trying to hold down a full-time job  

If you employ working mothers and they are working from home, make sure you are looking after them. Check in to ensure they are ok and are coping. Reaching out and recognising the pressure they are under whilst trying to hold it all together, will make a huge difference.  

So, as we set to look ahead with our workforce and recovery, let’s all start to value this fact, work harder to recognise and support more women by bringing parity.”  

We can all challenge instances of inequality in our lives. Whether that be as a consumer, choosing to boycott brands for reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes, or as an individual, helping to demonstrate the importance of gender equality to friends and family.   

Without challenging existing norms, we cannot hope to be the change we want to see in the world.#ChoseToChallenge stereotypes and tag a working mum who inspires and influences other lives to show your appreciation.   

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