Why India Inc. should go beyond Women's Day fanfare.

While I am happy Women's Day celebrations have become widespread and popular over two decades in India, more often today they have become less consistent with their purpose. It has become a standard-driven checklist: CEO wishing email, town hall events for women employees, cake cutting, flowers, guest speakers and goes on.

Over the years many women who are employees and entrepreneurs have in private confided their views that women's day has lost its original meaning and become too commercialized, leading to confusion and disappointment among them.

I am trying to summarize the factors that have disappointed women employees, who have crossed their bridge.

1. No tangible change on the ground.

2. Tokenism for certain organizations to appear progressive without making real efforts to address gender inequality.

3. Women's Day celebrations have become increasingly commercialized, with companies using the day as an opportunity to sell products or services. Some women may feel that the commercialization of Women's Day detracts from its original purpose and makes it feel insincere.

4. Some women feel that Women's Day does not adequately address the experiences of marginalized groups within women.

5. When celebrations become routine, they lose their impact and fail to inspire meaningful change.

International Women's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.

For those friends who are keen to understand deeply the context of women's day;

First National Woman's Day was observed in the United States on 28 February and not on 08 March. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.

Image Source: FII

But the first milestone in the US was much earlier - in 1848. Indignant over women being barred from speaking at an anti-slavery convention, Americans Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott congregate a few hundred people at their nation’s first women’s rights convention in New York. Together they demand civil, social, political and religious rights for women in a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. A movement was kickstarted.

The United Nations (UN) started celebrating International Women's Day in 1977, it was officially agreed that the day will be widely observed on March 8 every year.

Executive and board Leadership-folks in India need to understand this clearly.

Source: BTMAG

"While the Indian economy has grown more than 10 times since 1990, its female workforce participation has fallen from 30 per cent in 1990 to 19 per cent as of 2021. The fall has been particularly steep in the past 15 years when female labour participation plunged from 32 per cent in 2005 to 19 per cent in 2021, shows World Bank data. During that time, the economy nearly quadrupled."- Business Today

As a country, we are improving, but there is a lot to do. So next time when we wish someone Happy Women's Day remember, it should be every day.

Do vote your view below.

Blog by

Srinivas A

Founder

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