Happy International Women’s Day!!
To all the Ladies! <3
It’s part, a great thing and part, a sad thing that we must have a specific day to celebrate women.
Personally, I am one of those who endorse having special days, to celebrate people and things we love or want to create awareness of, such as Birthday, Valentine’s day, Earth day, Christmas day, Chocolate day, Cancer day, Water day etc, that’s another story for another day. But why I said it is part a great thing and part a sad thing is that we celebrate this day, partly to celebrate women, which is a positive thing but also, partly to create awareness of the fact that women’s rights are still something that constantly needs to be “fought” for in some countries or communities. And that there IS a gender inequality in the world.
Feminism. Do We Really Need It?
Why is feminism or women’s rights important? Because feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the genders and women’s rights are actually human rights that have not been provided equally.
There is such a misconception on the whole term “Feminism” that it sort of alienates men and comes off as a loud, masculine voice of women that they MUST have equal rights. And I won’t even get started on the amounts of jokes that go around women who identify themselves as Feminists. I believe that everyone, both men and women must be feminists. At least, in this day and age – when there’s equality, there won’t be a need for feminism.
Balance for Better
This year, the theme for the International Women’s Day is “Balance for Better”. Check out https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Theme for more on this. Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive. And this is true. There IS a divide among the genders and this imbalance is not something imaginary or hyped up. Check out these interactive stats and you will understand what I mean – g.co/thedivide
Numbers Don’t Lie – Google it
If you checked out the link above, You realize that there is inequality not just in the business world and the workplace, but also at home. Google’s own initiative Womenwill – https://www.womenwill.com is based on years of research on this and thus, Google is committed to doing more to uplift women entrepreneurship because they essentially believe that “Opportunity for women brings benefits for everyone”.
Womenwill and GBG – Small Contributions Matter
There is a small pride and joy that I’ve been fortunate enough to contribute in my own way to balance the gap at least a little, in helping the local women entrepreneurs, through Womenwill as the country lead for Sri Lanka. Together with the Google Business Group (GBG) Colombo team, we’ve carried out several workshops last year and will continue these efforts this year as well.
GBG – Colombo and Womenwill – Sri Lanka are also doing a special event to celebrate women’s day called “SheLeads” on 23rd March, at Hatch Works. It’s free to attend (as all GBG and Womenwill events are entrance free). We’re planning on bringing an event packed with great value and many take-homes. If you would like to join, you can click here to register – https://goo.gl/cWQxNG. Attendance is strictly by registration only. And here’s the link to the Facebook event page for more info.
Womenwill also has a podcast called “The Lead” which is totally free. This podcast series provides true life stories from women leaders who share their leadership journeys, career paths, and personal growth. This series is designed to share actionable ideas on how women can start to be more successful in their careers and become the leaders of tomorrow. Check it out here https://www.womenwill.com/lead/podcasts.html
We will be sharing many more resources like this podcast and a lot of valuable information and insights from some of the leading women in various professions at the #SheLeads event. Seating is limited as usual but I would love to welcome the ladies to register and attend.
Takes Two To Tango
While we strive to do the best to bridge the gap, there is still an imbalance between the two genders. Like Yin and Yan, the two genders must balance and be harmonious in order for there to be true fulfilment and happiness in us all, as humans. This is why it is important that men become counterparts of the ongoing conversation and activities to bridge the gender gap. It is time for both men and women to play an active role in promoting equality and closing the gap between perceived efforts and lived reality. It takes two to Tango – or solve inequality. Let’s join hands!
#IWD2019 #BalanceforBetter #GlobalFeminism #SheLeads #Womenwill #GBGcolombo #Google #GoogleBusinessGroups
The world and women’s place in it is evolving. The status quo will soon be going the way of the dinosaur, and it’s women that will fill the roles once held exclusively by men. But, for humanity to endure these are necessary changes. Innovation is gender blind, and therefore half the earths population should have an equal voice, at long last. I applaud the efforts for the empowerment of women, so that they can to take their rightful place at the forefront of technology, science, art, and so on.
Thank you Sam, for sharing your thoughts. That’s bound to happen eventually, like for our daughters and their daughters. And if we could expedite the process, I’m sure we would see the gender gap reduced to almost nothing in our lifetime itself 🙂
Bridging the gap is easier in some communities like Scandinavia for example, which makes you wonder, have humans evolved much faster in some parts of Europe or something?
Because if you look at Sri Lanka, when our national airliner had an all-female crew flying to Singapore on Women’s Day, among the multitude of praises in the comments section of their Facebook post, there were a few men posting comments like them wanting to cancel flight ticket, citing reasons as lame as, women can’t operate complicated mechanical equipment such as an aircraft. LOL
They probably had never heard of women such as Amelia Earhart the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean or Bertha Benz, the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance. Wonder if the dude would have given up his Benz car on that information alone IF he had one lol
As for me, I’m more amused than angered and sometimes even feel sorry when I hear a guy saying women don’t ‘get’ technology or mechanics or whatever else they think is impossible for a human to comprehend if they were born female. Like, such a person must be mentally challenged or must have lived in a community that’s slow in the process of evolution.