International Women’s Day is often a day of celebration and recognition. The women that we are, the women that came before us and the pioneering women around the world, fighting for a better life for us all.
So, why does it feel so empty this year?
Yes, our inboxes have been flooded with IWD2024 discount codes, Instagram feeds are filled with stories of female friendships, etc, but it all still feels quite worthless. We’re not quite living in a world that mirrors what the internet is trying to show us today.
Perhaps it’s more important that we don’t focus on celebration so much as progress itself, liberation, inclusivity, and actually reckoning with women’s struggles around the world?
When it comes to protecting and supporting women, we have a long way to go:
- Stats released today from Pregnant Then Screwed, a charity dedicated to protecting working mothers from discrimination, revealed that the pay gap between mothers and fathers has grown by 93p per hour since 2020
- In a survey of more than 110, 000 women in the UK, as part of the UK Government’s call for evidence for the Women’s Health Strategy, 50% of respondents felt that their pain was disregarded or overlooked by medical professionals
- Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, both as casualties and in reduced access to health services, according to the World Health Organization
- According to Afghan Aid, Afghan women and girls are facing the brunt of the crisis in Afghanistan, with 96% of female-headed households currently unable to eat enough on a daily basis
- According to a United Nations report, violence against women in the UK is a national threat as a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK and one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime
- LBT+ women are more likely (31%) than gay, bi, and trans men (21%) to experience food insecurity, according to Stonewall
- Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has done very little to tackle the rise in transphobic crimes in the UK and even belittled transgender women in front of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey’s mother
- Maternal mortality for Black women is currently almost four times higher than for white women, according to a House of Commons Committee Report
- Misogynoir is still rife throughout workplaces with 75% of women of colour having experienced racism at work and 27% having suffered racial slurs, according to Fawcett Society
- Additionally, community resource Girls In Marketing isn’t celebrating International Women’s Day this year. On their LinkedIn, they said: “With men still being twice as likely to reach the top marketing positions than women, it’s clear that every day should be an opportunity for us to advocate for women, not just IWD”
- A massive 90% of workplaces have no formal support for women experiencing menopause, according to a recent report
- Even once retirement hits, we’re not safe. According to Scottish Widows, 60% of divorced women and 75% of single mothers are not on track for at least a minimum retirement lifestyle
- Boys and men from Gen Z are more likely than older Baby Boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than good, according to a Kings College London report
- According to the Open University, over one in 10 women in England have experienced online violence, with this figure increasing amongst those aged 16-24 (25%) and LGTBQ+ women (35%). Of those women who have experienced online violence, over one in ten (13%) said it later progressed to offline violence.
- Endometriosis, a condition that impacts 1 in 10 women and causes chronic pain, excessive bleeding, exhaustion and problems with fertility, now takes an average of 8 years and 10 months to be diagnosed in women, up from 8 years in 2020, according to Endometriosis UK
... And this is just a small selection of stats. This International Women’s Day isn’t a moment of celebration but instead one of crisis. Rights are being rolled back, misogyny is still rife and women are being left in pain, impoverished and isolated due to the many ways that we’re being failed.
As writer Sophie Walker said in her recent newsletter, “RIP IWD”: “I don’t want to host a learning experience, or share an inspiring quote on [International Women’s Day]. I don’t want to wear sodding purple. I want your time, money and concentration until every single woman in the world is free. ”