You saw it coming as soon as February closed its door: International Women's day is approaching. As you know, we owe it to the socialist feminist movements of the early 20th century. Since then, international day is recognized and wildly celebrated with workshops, protests, and conferences. It is true indeed that the feminist movements and associations and their constant battles have gained some visibility and understanding among a lot of layers in society, thanks to campaigns like #MeToo for instance. However, total equality is not reached yet, is it? Women still suffer from differences in treatments and opportunities and the male-female conditioning is not yet erased from all the sources and situations that our little sisters, cousins, nieces, and daughters are facing.
In this context, you might want to get involved. And we are here to give you some inspiration on the topic. Sit back comfortably and read this article through. Share it wildly and as always: let us know what you think, because your opinion matters.
International Women's Day 2022
There is one general theme that is trending right now. "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow". It is a very topical angle to choose given the recent news (like the brand new report published by the IPCC on climate change and its irreversible consequences).
We can only hope that this feminist day will thus gather people from all generations interested in solving the same problems: gender inequalities in a very unstable climate situation.
But this is also an opportunity to shed light on women taking a stand to fight the alarming climate changes to ensure a better future for all. Of course, you all think now of Greta Thunberg but she's not the only one. We might cite Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Or Rachel Kyte whose TedTalks on climate cooling is really insightful.
Women have a particular role to play in society and the same goes for the climate change debate. Indeed we are not equal when facing problems. The consequences of climate change can be harder for a specific layer of our society, among which women. Improving gender equality in this ever-changing climate situation is undoubtedly challenging.
#BreakTheBias Campaign
This year, a huge campaign has taken possession of the internet, social media, and many other environments and focuses on the invitation for everyone to #BreakTheBias.
Women are often defined by bias and prejudices and it is time for it to stop. Too often people stay quiet when facing situations during which women are insulted, misjudged, harassed. What is keeping us from intervening? What is keeping us from feeling involved?
So along with your colleagues, teams, friends, family, you can all get involved to help break the bias and make sure that you know and feel that you can call out discrimination and stereotyping whenever you see it.
5 ideas to break the bias
1. Start the conversation
The conversation starts internally, with your team, your members, your colleagues. What do they want to do, how and when? They might have some stories to share, some ideas to set up, some content to highlight: let them share with you what matters to them.
2. Get in touch with feminist nonprofits
Wherever you are located, there are inspiring nonprofits that need your help but also offer a lot of insightful resources or even workshops for you to discover everything about gender inequalities and how to fight them. So whether in France, Belgium, Canada, or elsewhere, start looking for them and for what they planned for Women's Day and partner up with them.
3. Share your #BreakTheBias pictures
Use your social media accounts to spread your involvement in feminist actions. Take the #breakTheBias pose and share it on social media to start the conversation with your audience on the topic.
4. Share what you learned
March 9 doesn't mean that feminist actions and gender inequalities are behind you. If you can make a Giving Tuesday activity live longer, so can you with feminist projects. Give them the opportunity that they deserve and start thinking about how to use what you have learned on International Women's Day. Maybe you will benefit from this reflection and great corporate volunteering and giving ideas will be born from this day.
5. Spread the word
Let your audience know about your new projects and give them all the resources that they might need to know more about it and get involved too.
And if you need an all-in-one tool you should know by now who you can turn to.
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