International Women's Day at Bold Voices

Breathing a sigh of relief because International Women's Day is over for another year...

Don't get me wrong, I love celebrating women, which is no doubt why it feels strange to do that just one day of the year. I have always felt conflicted about what IWD stands for and how people react to it. I'm very aware of how easy it is to get swept up in a day that at it's core has been commercialised and capitalised by those who talk big about women and women's equality for one day out of 365. This year we have had five IWD engagements in six days - it's been great and hectic, if a little exhausting - but it's also been necessary. Because the reality is, Bold Voices is an organisation that relies financially and conceptually on the IWD hype.

Having said that, we can pick and choose the hype we associate with. This year we have only said yes to engagements that have been with organisations and individuals wanting to have meaningful conversations about the issues we are facing, i.e. organisations who are not just ticking a 'woman box' for March and then ignoring their glaring gender pay gap for the rest of the year. Choosing to work with these kinds of people is not only the way we ultimately start to move the needle on women's equality, it's also energising and makes the hard work worthwhile.

I had a nostalgic scroll through my Instagram the other day and I found a post from IWD 2015. I had posted a photo of myself and a very close friend of mine, entitled 'Happy International Women's Day to the strongest woman I know'. At the time, it had been ten months since her husband tragically died. She is still one of the strongest women I know, but I had got that day all wrong back then. Perhaps, back in the day before #MeToo and Trump, IWD was more of a chance to celebrate those strong women who we love and want to shield from the traumas of the world, if only for one day.

The truth is, today that's no longer enough. Instead, IWD should be about diving deep into the complexities of why a day for women is still needed - it's a chance to confront our own complicity in an inequality that continues to form the bedrock of our society. It's space for uncomfortable work and intersectional education, not 'click bait' for the five most important women in our life - something we should be celebrating every day.