No more cheers - the ultimate Women's Day goal

🌎 But the journey to get there needs them.

Mar 12, 2021

Welcome to WorldWise, a newsletter to help discerning readers get truly global insight where current affairs meet humanity, written by Anita Makri.

This is the WorldWise View edition, with analysis on what’s in the news.

👉🏽 As always, if you like what you’re reading please consider a donation to help keep WorldWise going or invite friends to subscribe.

I doubt you’ve missed International Women’s Day this week.

It usually comes with plenty of coverage reminding us of the many ways in which women are at a disadvantage in society, with a sprinkling of aspirational calls for action and stories of exceptional women who beat the odds to make it in a man’s world.

A small selection:

Violence against women ‘devastatingly pervasive’ as world’s largest study reveals 1 in 3 endure abuse - Telegraph + NPR Goats & Soda
Meet Afghanistan's first female animator - Guardian
Why the world needs more women data scientists - CGD
VISUAL | Domestic violence and workers' rights: women protest worldwide - Guardian

Individually these are important and good stories. Collectively, there’s something about this kind of coverage that’s always made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t put my finger on why for the longest time. And then in the lead-up to women’s day six years ago, it clicked into place—helped enormously by Susan Sontag’s writings, and precipitated by discussions with my colleagues at SciDev.Net.

Back then it was part of my job to muse a couple of times a month through SDN’s editorials. As Women’s Day was approaching that year, I was acutely aware that our internal discussions on gender had been slightly awkward—some colleagues were firm believers in taking time out to talk about how gender matters, others kept an open mind, others couldn’t wait to get back to their desks and to-do lists. It was a reflection of a truth about the matter, and it felt like the right time to put my ‘click’ into words.

I’ve gone back to that piece to pull out some excerpts as a way of explaining why a wave of celebration that treats women as a niche issue makes me uncomfortable:

It is a worry that looking at people or activities through a gender lens risks unduly focusing on gender above everything else that makes up that individual or action. Defining ourselves and others in terms of gender has a strange way of reinforcing the stereotypes we are trying to dispel. And that risks creating something akin to a parallel track that is specific to women but separate from the world in which they demand, and should have, a stronger presence. Simply put, being a woman, or a man, or of any other gender identity, is part of who we are, but we are made up of much more.
Being a woman or a man does not define us—and crucially, neither should it limit us.
The aim is equal opportunities, equal rights and equal power—and more to the point, it is about being open to diversity that enriches any task, any conversation, any society.

If you find this a bit abstract as a reason to be uncomfortable about focusing on the barriers women face and the progress we achieve on equality, I hear you. There’s no denying that gender is a complex issue to navigate. I tried to pin that down, laying out two reasons why I think it’s the case.

The first is confusion over the individual and collective aspects of how we understand gender. For example, inequalities and injustices for women in many societies are undeniable; covert messages, patriarchal systems and entrenched beliefs have a disempowering effect, often in subtle ways, discouraging women and girls from participating fully in society.
But it would be a mistake, and part of the very definition of discrimination, to use collective characteristics as a way to understand an individual woman—and vice versa, to use an individual woman’s experience to understand the collective.
The second reason is that each person has a different perception of gender in their life and wider society, even as that might change over time. For all of us, things like upbringing, social environment, education and experiences influence perceptions and attitudes. Similarly, each society is at a different place, historically and relative to each other, in the value it places on women and the structural barriers to women’s participation.
We are not all on the same page—and this only serves to reinforce the need for open conversations about women, gender and equality in the workplace and in societies.

This brings us back to the public conversation of which Women’s Day coverage is a part. It doesn’t make me uncomfortable because it’s there—in fact, I see it as an essential part of the journey to equality. It’s necessary. Advocacy and anger about violence, and so many other issues that affect women disproportionately, are necessary. What makes me uncomfortable is that having this kind of coverage then becomes proof that we’re not yet there. And it separates out ‘women’ as a niche issue, rather than a whole-of-society issue.

This is why I wrote about the many setbacks women have suffered during the pandemic in the way that I did in this post back in October. Take the gender label off and think about it as half the population—aren’t those statements so much more astonishing?

Several weeks ago Luba Kassova, co-founder and director of the audience strategy consultancy AKAS, presented a report she wrote—on commission from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—about the missing perspectives of women in pandemic coverage. Kassova remarked that gender equality coverage is virtually absent from news. It didn’t ring true: I’d actually found plenty, many of which were shared in that October post I just mentioned. But it tends to be marginalised, outside the mainstream. Perhaps this is what Kassova meant; this is how the coverage becomes less visible.

These were the concluding words of that 2015 editorial:

But even though we may all be on a journey, there should be no question as to the destination: a world that values diversity, where men and women share the same space with equal opportunities, rights and power, neither limited nor defined by their gender.

A ‘new normal’ or sorts. Sadly, I haven’t picked up much talk of a new normal on gender during the pandemic. But in the midst of report after report documenting how equality has taken a hit, there are some bright spots occasionally shining through. Back in October I promised to send some your way—here’s a selection, better late than never.

The pandemic has eroded women’s rights—but there is a way forward - Oxfam fp2p
The pandemic's toll on women globally, and what can be done to soften the blow - Melinda Gates in Foreign Affairs
Turning the threat into an opportunity: A Wuhan-based feminist activist campaign during COVID-19 - Oxfam fp2p
U.N. tracker looks at how countries' Covid-19 responses are helping women - NPR
Stats and response initiatives—the virus of gender-based violence - Oxfam fp2p
Kenya launches first women’s empowerment index - Devex
A new wave of feminism is spreading in Uganda - Economist
Imagining the world anew: gender equality and women’s rights - Oxfam fp2p
The Center for Global Development has launched the Covid-19 Gender and Development Initiative - CGD

A final note from the week’s soundtrack 🌎

WorldWise is an independent newsletter—thanks for your readership and support.

Thoughts to share, or something I missed? Hit reply or leave a comment.

WorldWise

No more cheers - the ultimate Women's Day goal

🌎 But the journey to get there needs them.

I doubt you’ve missed International Women’s Day this week.

A final note from the week’s soundtrack 🌎

Discussion about this post