What Not To Do This International Women’s Day

For many people International Women’s Day has lost its way. It is too readily used by corporates as a day to provide lip service to gender equality and women’s advancement at work.

But women don’t need one day of celebration, we need companies to take action every day to remove the barriers to women’s advancement and fulfillment at work.

Without action it is too easy for men, women and all individuals to become fatigued, disengaged and disillusioned with efforts to advance gender equality.

To prevent this, we wanted to share our list of dos and don’ts to help people celebrate IWD in a meaningful way.

Joining us on the show today is guest host Selina Suresh. Selina works with Michelle at The Culture Practice and she also worked for UN Women in New York and Nepal.

We need workplaces to look at the ideal worker behaviors they reward, endorse and support that create cultures of inequality at work. We need workplaces to make significant, meaningful efforts to change their cultures, so that they work for everyone.

Often around IWD time, you might hear a few men say, what about men?! Why don’t we have a day specifically dedicated to men’s advancement? Well that's simple, men already dominate most leadership positions, they don’t face the same degree of discrimination and marginalization that women do. Workplaces already work for men. The real reason this question is asked, is all too often IWD initiative's can forget about men, and the important role they play in advancing gender equality at work.

Action: Don’t get sucked into performative events or platitudes or pink merchandise (no matter how enticing it might appear)! Recognize that this day was created by advocates and for advocates dedicated to advancing women, all women in all areas of life. It’s a day of meaningful action and the best way to celebrate it is by challenging yourself to do more.

Visit https://onehundredactions.com/ use these actions to make change today.