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Original poster

Please help me make my company's International Women's Day not crap

29 replies

KeyserSophie · 09/02/2017 04:38

I'm working on International Women's Day at my work place. I have managed to get the committee away from a Hallmark vom fest of "appreciating" women while keeping them firmly in their assigned roles (paper flower making anyone?), but the downside is that I now have to basically organise an alternative.

There will be one actual hour long event, which will probably be some sort of (short- 10 mins) film clip followed by a facilitated discussion (whole company invited so not just women) and then we're also planning to have some stuff up on screens around the office/ screensavers etc. over the week. Maybe also something around "He for She".

However, i really need some ideas of good video shorts, quotes, infographics etc that make people think about their own biases - one of my ideas was using some quotes from The Man Who has it All, and I like those things (dont know what they're called- sorry) where you see the person drawing in real time and it tells a story. Outside the main event we wont have sound so it needs to be quotes, pictures or infographics.

Another possibility is a showing of a longer documentary as an early evening event so any suggestions of feature length feminist documentaries would be great- not the body one though as I dont think we can show vaginas in the office Grin

I'm not in the UK so stuff that is broadly applicable rather than being too UK centric would be ideal.

Any help appreciated.

OP posts:
BoboChic · 09/02/2017 08:40

Is a celebration of International Women's Day the right time to draw attention to inequality? And "issues"? Or is it rather the time to celebrate authentic female voices and successes in a wide range of domains?

CMOTDibbler · 09/02/2017 08:35

One of the short clips you could use is the one where children are asked to draw a doctor/firefighter etc and they all draw male figures - then get to meet these people and they are all female. Its a good discussion of unconscious bias.

Its also a good time to ask for some gender mix analysis in your company - in the c suite, senior managers and so on.
Maybe a survey for all workers on what would make their working life and home/work life balance better. Usually shows that men, women, and millenialls (a hot topic atm) want the same thing unsuprisingly. But is an important message that flexibility around working patterns for instance is not a women with children issue, its something that is valued by everyone

BoboChic · 09/02/2017 08:21

I think you need to start from your actual audience i.e. the women who work in your organisation. Who speaks for them? My current female icons are Michelle Obama, Mimi Thorisson, Julianne Moore, Rose Uniacke, Federica Mogherini... who are theirs? There is nothing more cringeworthy than being told that e.g. Emma Watson speaks for me. No she doesn't.

Datun · 09/02/2017 08:14

keyser

I'm not educated in feminist history. I've become interested and indignant in equal measure, largely as a result of listening to what women have said on here and then reading up about it.

But early on I read a timeline (in list form) of the history of women's rights. Seeing it in black-and-white as an achingly slow process was eye opening. Particularly as I'm not young - many of the rights have only been secured during my lifetime. Some after I got married. Like making rape within marriage illegal, only in 1991. And the fact that a pub landlord could refuse to serve me on the grounds of my sex - I was 21 before that law changed and had been drinking in pubs without that little nugget of information for years!

Younger people take a lot of these rights for granted (although, the rape within marriage often shocks them). Showing how resistant governments were to the rights that they are able to enjoy and expect and don't even think about, can give pause. (It took 15 years for the rape/marriage one to be ratified).

The above doesn't 'celebrate' womanhood as much as show how precarious a status it has.

And it might not be the angle you are looking for.

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