A few thoughts on International Women’s Day 2023

Ladies & gentlemen, for IWD our friend is back!

The @GenderPayGapBot on Twitter will be telling us whether the gender pay gap is the same, smaller, or wider than last year.

What do you think the result will be?
If it isn’t “the gap has closed”, then it’s the wrong result.

International Women’s Day, honestly, I want to love it. But I don’t. 

When I ask myself ‘why’? It comes back to the same answer… WHY ARE WE STILL FIGHTING FOR EQUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE?!

It’s 2023, we have women who are breaking down doors and smashing through those glass ceilings, but we don’t have near enough championing other women. 

Yes, it’s nice to celebrate women, but so many companies are just whitewashing for the occasion. Throwing a few posts up on your company page of your female colleagues that most of the time aren’t even noticed, it’s pretty insulting.

And let’s be totally honest, it ignores the reality of the workplace for most women. 

If they aren’t praised throughout the year… why are you doing it only on International Women’s Day?
It is purely for the optics, and it’s hypocritical.

But why are we still fighting for the right to be paid equally?

Well, it’s not uncommon to hear that a particular candidate is “quite young or recently married, so likely to get pregnant”. Or this particular lady is “difficult” because she questions decisions. 
-While her male counterpart was praised earlier for “challenging” recent company policy.

These are just two examples of discriminatory behaviours I’ve witnessed from both male and female senior managers. And while behaviour like this exists, we need to champion women in the workplace.

We can talk about how much we need senior male mangers to step up, but more importantly we need those trailblazing women, who have fought so hard for positions of power, to step up more.

Ladies, you are amazing, champion the women you work with, send that lift back down to elevate other women up. 

Until there’s more representation across the board, the Gender Pay Gap Bot result will always be the wrong one.