Why Women Are Winning – International Women’s Day

Dedicated to: Heidi Silberman and the Ink Squad from Bali x

Yesterday was International Women’s Day and I had the amazing opportunity to speak at the Migrant and Refugee Services Centre. It was an incredible day of culture, festivities and women coming together from different backgrounds t0

Honestly, it was pretty epic. I hugged no fewer than 20 people, we spoke about our universal power and everyone shared a meal and ate cake.

During my talk, I stated I am a feminist – which is true, but when I went to say the words, they very uncomfortably fell out of my mouth. FEMINIST.

This word has become so synonymous with ‘male bashing’, so I want to be clear about what my definition of feminism is. It’s about equal rights and opportunities for men and women. It is the social, economic and financial equality of both sexes.

I am among the ranks of women who believe that I should be paid the same as my male colleagues working in equivalent roles. I believe I have the right to make decisions about my own body and healthcare. I believe women should represent me in Government.

I believe we should be EQUAL. I am not better, I am not worse. I am EQUAL to men.  

BUT… and this is the hard thing to say here… BUT… Dudes, you are failing me of late.

In the past 36 hours alone, two potential collaborations are at risk because of MEN’S actions. One person is failing at delivering on work they have promised. The other has been publicly condescending of my work and call me crazy, but I don’t want my reputation tarnished because of these messes.

In stark contrast, I woke up to an email from a female friend reading, ‘A gift for you’ – she made some graphics content for NO REASON other than love and support.

I watched dozens of International Women’s Day videos from my female and male friends and business colleagues and all of them did SHOUT OUTS to women, talking about supporting each other and naming the other goddesses in their realms. And then on Facebook, I saw males slamming International Womens Day and talking about how there is NO INTERNATIONAL MEN’S DAY (There is. It’s 19th November) and how men are getting the raw end of the deal in family court and how women are not willing to do labour style jobs and if we are after true equality, pick up a hammer and start working physically. (This guy’s career CHOICE was to be a labourer.)

I do not believe in trying to change other people’s opinions. I read the thread and disengaged. I’m an avid believer in doing my job and letting the results speak for themselves and it seems most other women are too. Over the past five years, we’ve seen more and more small businesses popping up that have been started by women. We’ve seen an increase in the ownership of financial empowerment and takeover by women, in addition to seeing more and more collaboration and further work results.

So Dudes, I wanted to let you know that while you’ve been busy missing deadlines, bagging us out, whinging using factually incorrect information on social media platforms and feeling pissed about your life choices, the women around you have been supporting each other, collaborating and building empires that do not involve you. We banded together to support each other. And we NEED you to be part of this for the sake of EQUALITY, but you have to give us something to work with. 

Gents, I invite you to come to the party to join us.

Also, we have cake.