Another IWD has come and gone. Rather than go back to business as usual, we say it should Never Not be International Women’s Day. Welcome to a mind-changing, bias-ridding, downright mutinous loop of ideas and musings from women in the creative and associated industries everywhere that will run 24/7/365 on a loop forever, or until...we don’t need to talk about it anymore.
If the last couple of years have taught us one thing, women are still a long way from equality and equity. Globally, women bore the brunt of the physical, emotional and financial impacts of the pandemic with their livelihoods affected at almost twice the rate of men.
As International Women’s Day passes, we say enough really is f*cking enough.
Enough of our stoicism. Enough of our patience. Enough of the injustice. It will be Never Not International Women’s Day until all women including women of colour, women with disabilities, and queer or trans women, stop being penalised for being women.
This is just a little tea talk with Tanarra about the outcomes of a system predicated on the fear of women's success. I've been examining fear a lot in the workplace, and how it manifests, what it keeps us from doing, and frankly, the violence it visits upon us.
There are many challenges when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Differences of dealing with and overcoming them. She encourages us to view diversity as a strength, not a weakness if we're to create meaningful and impactful change. Jess encourages us to engage and lean into our uniqueness.
Our talk is simply a conversation between two friends. So much of what women encounter is seen as ordinary, banal, just the way things are. People accept it as the norm. We hope our stories help people empathise and understand the cultural sea change that's needed if we truly want to change.
Somewhere around 2015 the first of the John genre articles arrived, trumpeting that there are more CEO's named John than women CEO's in their entirety. For the next few years, these articles became as reliable as champagne power breakfast invitations in the lead up to IWD.