On Tuesday 8th March, Leicestershire Cares celebrated International Women's Day. International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Worldwide, groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality. International Women's Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to celebrate women's achievements and raise awareness about women's equality.
The campaign theme for International Women's Day 2022 was #BreakTheBias. Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead. Knowing that bias exists isn't enough. Action is needed to level the playing field.
At Leicestershire Cares, we celebrated by holding an International Women's Day event at our office warehouse, where business members could also join in person or online. We wore purple to signify justice and dignity.
We heard from our staff members about gender equality and issues that affect women, how International Women's Day is celebrated around the world, discussed statements around findings on gender bias in the workplace, and also heard from Counsellor Ruma Ali about her experience and journey as a woman, as well as learning more about her exciting women's projects.
Our staff member Catalina showed a video on Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2021. She also spoke about the sustainable development goals of no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education and gender equality.
She also asked the women in the room 'What does a world without gender bias look like to you?'. There responses were varied and opened our eyes to lots of issues that women face in their daily lives.
"A fairer society, equality and a better world for everyone"
A response to the question 'What does a world without gender bias look like to you?'
"To be recognised because I am good at something but my gender doesn't come in to it at all."
A response to the question 'What does a world without gender bias look like to you?'
"Where there is equality to give women more choice in the jobs that they want to do with their time. To give women better opportunities which they deserve!"
A response to the question 'What does a world without gender bias look like to you?'
Our staff member Amrina then spoke about how other countries celebrate International Women's Day around the world.
We then had the brilliant Councillor Ruma Ali speaking & sharing her experiences and her journey with us. She also spoke about her new Ladies Lounge - Safer Women's Project, which allows for an open access safe space for women to come and have discussions, workshops and training. We also loved these beautiful, empowering and inspiring cards from Ruma donated by Tesco Hamilton.
Our staff member Jenny then facilitated the conversation around breaking the bias. In groups, we read statements to identify, challenge and #BreakTheBias. We spoke about biases against women, and had to guess the findings of some of the most surprising research on gender bias in the workplace.
Our staff also amplified our commitment to #BreakTheBias by showing support and encouraging others to help forge women's equality.
Overall, the event was a success as we supported inspiring and amazing women across our city and county, to connect, speak out and bring about change for themselves and others in order to #BreakTheBias.
It is important that we come together to celebrate, learn and more importantly to encourage all of us to make every day a women’s rights day. When we do this, it is worth remembering that we are standing on the shoulders of giants who led the way and fought against the odds so women’s voices could be heard. Across the world and the UK many women are carrying on that fight.
Some useful links can be found here:
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
As we move forward, we are committed to ensuring that women and girls have a central role to play in developing, shaping, delivering, and reviewing our work. We look forward to working with and learning from the many inspirational and creative women and girls across our city and county.
Neetu Squire, Head of Community Development