March 8th 2024 is International Women’s Day and is recognised around the world. The awareness day has a long history going back to 1909 but was officially recognised by the United Nations in 1977. In the UK, various organisations promote International Women’s Day with different campaigns of their own. For example, the Prince’s Trust #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign is raising funds to improve young women’s futures and opportunities.
Whatever cause you chose to support, the message is clear that gender equality still needs our attention and accelerating the process of reaching equality can only be achieved if we start by raising awareness and encouraging support for programmes of change.
Investing in women, a human rights issue: Time is running out. Gender equality is the greatest human rights challenge, benefiting everyone.
Ending poverty: Due to the COVID pandemic and conflicts, 75 million more people have fallen into severe poverty since 2020. Immediate action is crucial to prevent over 342 million women and girls living in poverty by 2030.
Implementing gender-responsive financing: Conflicts and rising prices may lead 75% of countries to cut public spending by 2025, negatively impacting women and their essential services.
Shifting to a green economy and care society: The current economic system disproportionately affects women. Advocates propose a shift to a green economy and care society to amplify women's voices.
Supporting feminist change-makers: Despite leading efforts, feminist organizations receive only 0.13% of official development assistance.
Why are we marking International Women’s Day 2024?
Aside from being the right thing to do, collectively, organisations can make a difference and be part of a conduit for change.
In our role as recruiters, we are in the unique position to help guide improvements in social mobility and investment into women by ensuring we advocate and facilitate gender equality in the workplace. It is within our control to influence decision makers and drive change whether it is through advising hiring teams on their policies, ensuring we deliver against their programmes and using the data we are in a unique position to collect to make improvements. Carrington West’s ED&I Champion, Ella Razzell says;
“International Women’s Day is just one day of the year but it is so important to shine a light on the ongoing issue of gender inequality across the globe. We can make changes here in our working roles to help improve opportunities and investment into women. Just as importantly, women are disproportionately adversely affected by wider political and economic global events. Our voice is louder if we all stand together behind initiatives.”
If you are still reading at this point, then hopefully you understand and support our motives for publishing this article. This is not clickbait to generate business or jump on a social media band wagon – this is a call to action for change. The women from Carrington West in the photograph that accompanies this article are showing their support for #Investinprogress.
Get in contact with us if you'd like to speak more about ED&I and empowering women in your workplace.
