Ditch hashtags on Women’s Day... see a movie instead

It’s almost International Women’s Day again – our yearly reminder that we’re still decades away from the equality we seek and deserve. Increasingly, the impending arrival of International Women’s Day makes me feel tired and eye-rolly and a bit anxious. Because we know what’s coming on March 8.

In recent years, IWD (which has been around since 1911) has become a handy date for corporates to flag their support for women’s equity by holding ‘‘events’’ which often mask a lack of meaningful progress behind the scenes. Much easier to do a one-and-done cupcake run, one day a year, than do the mahi to create real change.

And increasingly, women are calling bullshit on all of that performative nonsense.

This sounds ungrateful. As if we should have to be grateful for a day taken over by meaningless hashtags from organisations still lagging dreadfully in pay equity and transparency, along with representation of women at executive and board level.

Those woolly hashtags were picked apart at the Women’s Agenda website by writer Angela Priestley, who also followed the breadcrumbs to the foggy source of the IWD PR juggernaut. The IWD website is run by a London-based company with an Asia Pacific office in Sydney – but the website says little about who they are or what they do – apart from a list of sponsor organisations which includes at least two weapons manufacturers.

So far, so opaque.

The IWD website has #embraceequity (two or three words only please ladies, your lack of equality in most areas of life MUST work as a hashtag) as its 2023 theme. As Priestley points out, this bears no resemblance to UN Women’s official theme, which this year is ‘‘Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future’’.

Ludicrously, as part of the messaging on the IWD website, women are asked to hug ourselves and then post the evidence to social media. ‘‘Show the world your huge embrace. Strike the IWD #EmbraceEquity pose to show solidarity.’’

In a long ‘‘article’’ comprised of loosely-connected slogans (‘‘[t] ogether we can work collectively to impact positive change. Together we can all help forge an equal world. Let’s all embrace equity today, and always’’) the website also claims ‘‘all IWD activity is valid’’ (no further explanation is given).

Well, tell that to the thousands of enraged women who have in recent years begun calling out organisations for their IWD gurning.

Just one recent example – the UK’s Women’s Prize for Fiction Twitter account changed its logo from green to hot pink and released a limited edition pyjama set, declaring it was ‘‘reclaiming’’ pink for Women’s History month. The tweet attracted dozens of replies from women whose message was ‘‘yikes, no thanks’’ to an idea that reinforces all the old stereotypes (some suggested suffrage colours of purple, white and green would have been a better choice).

‘‘Don’t use pink’’ was part of the helpful advice UK writer Sophie Walker gave in an epic Twitter thread on March 1, aiming to save corporates from falling into a similar trap. ‘‘Pay your women speakers’’ was another (this is a biggie – the irony of asking a woman to formulate, write and present a speech at a women’s empowerment event, for free, seems to whiz right by so many companies this time of year). She also advised them to look back at previous years’ fluffing of their feminist feathers, and if the promises of better pay equity and representation have not been met, cancel those IWD events until you have made progress.

Last March, the Twitter bot @PayGapApp began retweeting UK organisations’ IWD statements with information on exactly how well – or not – those workplaces were doing on pay equity. The results for many were not pretty. No wonder we’re starting to get the firm feeling we’re being duped.

Rather than liking and retweeting the hashtags, I have a better idea for you this IWD – go to the movies. Specifically, go to see Women Talking, the Oscarnominated film by Sarah Polley, based on Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel.

Having seen it, I can tell you that although it is set in a reclusive religious community, it will tell you much about the way women wrestle with decisions about what actions to take in the face of power and violence, and what the consequences might be for them and their families. There’s no violence on-screen, and no overwrought car-chases (actually, no internalcombustion-driven machinery at all, just horses and buggies) but it’s an edge-of-the-seat thriller nonetheless – and much more deserving of your attention than performative hashtags.