That it! I’m wrapping up our International Women’s Day blog for another year. Thank you to everyone who contacted me today to tell me about how they were marking the day, and thanks for keeping me company if you have been a reader.
If you emailed and I didn’t post, I’m sorry! But no apologies to the approximately 4,000 PRs who emailed me to use the day for a bit of free publicity, who I completely ignored.
See you all next year!
Women in the occupied Palestinian territories continue to face many challenges in asserting their rights, thanks to both Israeli human rights violations and systemic discrimination within Palestinian society.
Data released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday showed that while women outperform men in terms of educational attainment, just 17% of women participate in the workforce, and women only make up 11% of the Palestinian National Council, the highest decision making body in Ramallah.
A total of 31 Palestinian women are currently being held in the Israeli prison system, which allows the authorities to detain people without charge or trial with no time limit.
On International Women’s Day, we recognise & salute the strong Palestinian women who face systemic violence & discrimination from Israeli forces on a daily basis.
— Lina Ahmad (@lina_a2020) March 8, 2022
We honour them for their resistance and leading roles in the fight for justice & liberation for #Palestine#Gaza pic.twitter.com/2bDA5ki1rI
MPs, football groups and equality organisations have signed an open letter to the Premier League and FA calling on them to “meaningfully tackle gender-based violence”.
Organised by The End Violence Against Women Coalition, Level Up and The Three Hijabis, signatories include Caroline Nokes MP, Chair of Women and Equalities Select Committee, the frontman of the band Chumbawumba - famous for their football anthem Tubthumping, the Football Supporters Association and many organisations dedicated to ending inequality and supporting survivors of sexual violence and abuse.
I wrote about the letter, which urges the organisations to decide “which side they are on when it comes to violence against women and girls” last month:
Working group recommends creation of a misogyny act for Scotland
A misogyny act for Scotland, created exclusively for women to crack down on street harassment, organised online hate and an onslaught of rape and disfigurement threats, has been recommended to the Scottish government by Helena Kennedy.
Set up in February 2021 to consider the creation of a standalone offence of misogynist hate crime, Lady Kennedy’s working group has returned a far more ambitious report that recommends naming explicitly the daily abuses that “absolutely degrade women’s lives”.
Speaking exclusively to the Guardian as she launches the report, Kennedy says she aims to use law as a tool for cultural change, shift the dial to focus on perpetrator rather than women’s behaviour, and set the bar for change across the rest of the UK.
Good morning to American readers waking up, and to everyone else, good day.
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) March 8, 2022
Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
Let's start with a different track today: it's International Women's Day in Ukraine (and everywhere else).
Long lines of civilians and soldiers alike at the florist. pic.twitter.com/rfmKv9tBHM
Government rejects calls for an inquiry into the affordability and availability of childcare...on International Women's Day
Well, this is awkward.
At 03:36 today, yes International Women’s Day, tens of thousands of women who asked the government to look into cripplingly expensive childcare costs in the UK were told their demands had been rejected.
A petition calling for an independent review of childcare funding and affordability gathered 113,713 signatures, the majority of them women, and triggered a debate on childcare in parliament.
Those that had signed the petition were told the government had no plans to look into the cost and availability of childcare in an email from the Petitions Committee, which published the Government’s response to its report on the ongoing impact of covid-19 on new parents.
In September last year a survery shared with the Guardian revealed that 96% of more than 20,000 working parents said ministers were not doing enough to support parents with the cost and availability of childcare while 97% said childcare in the UK was too expensive.
The survey revealed that low-income parents and those on universal credit were resorting to using food banks as a result of the high costs of childcare.
The Petitions Committee stated that government response also “fails to commit” dedicated catch-up funding to deal with the backlog in parental mental health and health visiting services and “repeats the Government’s commitment, originally given in its response to the Committee’s first report on this issue, to strengthening redundancy protections for new and expectant mothers, but again fails to set a timetable for doing so.”
The Government said it had announced £500m in the 2021 Autumn Spending Review for early years services, including mental health services for new parents. It added that: “Tax-Free Childcare is a great offer for working parents”.
In its response to the committee the Department for Education said the need for a review had been debated twice and while the government “recognised the need for ongoing collaboration and discussion on the issue” it was “collectively concluded that a formal review is not needed”.
Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said:
It is quite astounding that the Government has chosen International Women’s Day to email 114,000 women who signed our petition demanding affordable childcare, to say they won’t be conducting an independent review of the childcare sector.
Affordable childcare is a critical component of gender equality. Without it hundreds of thousands of mothers are forced out of their jobs, whilst 84% say that the cost of childcare has had a negative impact on their ability to progress their career.
Women do the majority of the unpaid care work that keeps our society spinning and ensures men can progress their career. This work saves our economy billions of pounds.
It is a massive kick in the teeth to hear that the Government expects us to continue doing this work for free and that they will not invest further in the vital social infrastructure that is our childcare sector. We will never have gender equality whilst women cannot afford to go to work. Happy International Women’s Day to you too!
Kizzy Gardiner, who became the UK’s first Locum MP when she covered for Stella Creasy said she had got the news while doing a 3am feed with her baby. She said:
Waking up at 3am to feed a baby is exhausting. Waking up at 3am on IWD to an email from the government to say they’re not doing an independent review in to childcare is absolutely infuriating.
Childcare costs are crippling. To get this from the government speaks volumes about how little value they place on working families.
According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the UK has the third most expensive childcare system in the world, behind only Slovakia and Switzerland; a full-time place costs £12,376 a year on average.
Analysis released on Tuesday by Scottish Widows revealed that women retiring after 65 will save half as much money as men. Time out of the workplace and part-time work mean a woman will need to work an extra 37 years to give her the same pension pot as a man.
Updated
Absolutely love these pictures from the 1971 women’s Liberation Movement march - there is a dead ringer for my mum when she was a young woman! You can own one of them too, which is quite cool .
Own a classic Observer photograph from the Women’s Liberation Movement march, 1971
This is a pic from the 1971 Women's Lib March. Women are still asking for affordable #childcare. They are still being ignored #IWD2022 pic.twitter.com/da6uFlG50Y
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) March 8, 2022
A group of Ukrainian women sheltering from the shelling in a basement in Kharkiv have, for the first time, sent an International Women’s Day message of love and support to the men they love, writes my colleague Diane Taylor.
Usually men are not mentioned much on International Women’s Day., but today the message from the bunker states:
Dear women, May your children and your beloved men be alive, may all love creatures on this planet be happy. May there be peace in the world. May there be light. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.
Another international Women’s Day message has been written by a child on the poster on the left of this photo in a kitchen in western Ukraine providing food for internally displaced refugees.
My colleague Diane Taylor was sent this picture from women in a kitchen in western Ukraine, who are providing food for internally displaced refugees. The said: "The spirit of of all Ukrainians is alive and strong on International Women’s Day." #IWD2022 pic.twitter.com/ZWvMLKsee1
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) March 8, 2022
The child writes
Happy 8th March to the women cooks
The Ukrainian woman who shared this photo and message said:
The spirit of of all Ukrainians is alive and strong on International Women’s Day.
Zelenskiy sends sobering International Women's Day message
Sobering message Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on International Women’s Day, which is an important official holiday in Russia and Ukraine dating back from the Soviet era.
Women are often feted with flowers, chocolates and declarations of love, but of course this year has been utterly overshadowed by the tragedy in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened his morning video address Tuesday with these heartfelt and devastating words:
Ukrainians, we usually celebrate this holiday, the holiday of spring. We congratulate our women, our daughters, wives, mothers. Usually. But not today.
Today I cannot say the traditional words. I just can’t congratulate you. I can’t, when there are so many deaths. When there is so much grief, when there is so much suffering. When the war continues.
Updated
Biden doubles request for gender-equality foreign aid programmes
Over in the US president Joe Biden has said that he will ask Congress for $2.6 billion for foreign aid programs that promote gender equality worldwide, more than double the size of last year’s request.
The Associated Press have this dispatch:
Biden announced his intentions on International Women’s Day, which is set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world.
Biden created the first-ever White House Gender Policy Council last year to help promote gender equity throughout the administration.
He said everyone deserves to live up to their “God-given” potential, regardless of gender, and that societies perform better when women and girls are allowed to prosper.
In a written statement Biden said:
Ensuring that every woman and girl has that chance isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also a strategic imperative that advances the prosperity, stability, and security of our nation and the world.
The White House also was hosting a livestreamed International Women’s Day event to discuss the announcement, featuring Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Europe, acting budget director Shalanda Young, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power and Jen Klein, director of the Gender Policy Council. They are to be joined by young women leaders from Ukraine, Brazil, Zambia, Burma, Jordan and the United States. Biden was not scheduled to participate.
Jill Biden marked the day with a video tribute to women throughout the world “who courageously use their voice, no matter the cost.”
She said:
To our sisters from Ukraine who are fighting to keep their country free and their families alive: We stand with you in solidarity. To our sisters in Russia who are protesting and speaking out against the invasion at great personal risk: We see your courage.
And to women warriors around the world, those fighting for justice and working for change: Thank you for building a better future for all of us.
Another UK Government announcement today, this time from the Government Equalities Office, who have promised initiatives to level the playing field for women applying for jobs.
According to the GEO “participating employers will run pilots aimed at closing salary gaps by publishing salaries on all job adverts” - no information on the press release about how many employers actually are participating (I have asked).
They are also pushing a new ‘returners’ programme to support women into STEM roles after taking time out after having kids or other caring responsibilities.
This new programme will, it says, “help organisations to recruit and retain talented staff who are often overlooked because of a gap on their CV, by providing training, development and employment support to those who have taken time out for caring.”
It notes:
Unpaid care work [...] can have a big impact on pay and progression, with research showing that returners with degrees are, on average, paid 70% of the hourly wage of an equivalent colleague who has not taken time away from work.
There is not much detail in the GEO release on this though, including how many women it will help, and how it will be rolled out - and indeed how much money it will cost, and who is paying for it. If the GEO responds to my requests for further details I will report back.
IMF research shows Japan ranked 110 out of 149 in the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Gender Gap Index. At 24.5% in 2018, the gender wage gap is the second largest among OECD nations, surpassed only by South Korea. #IWD2022 https://t.co/mO4UEokJ8z
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) March 8, 2022
At Guardian Towers we are particularly enjoying the work of the not-for-profit Twitter bot @genderpaygap feed today, which is simply tweeting their median gender pay gap in response to any International Women’s Day tweets from company accounts.
It’s simple. It’s effective. It’s oh so pleasing.
Here’s a selection of companies who really don’t have too much to shout about when it comes to pay equality, and yet are using IWD as a means of promotion.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 68.6% lower than men's. https://t.co/Vk45EVqON4
— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 7, 2022
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 35.8% lower than men's. https://t.co/h4GMvIAtIQ
— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 8, 2022
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 41% lower than men's. https://t.co/8WT0ybE6g7
— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 8, 2022
Some companies seem to have gone as far as deleting their tweets once their gender pay gap has been pointed out to the world.
Seems like some orgs having second thoughts about tweeting about #IWD2022 when their #GenderPayGap is pointed out 👀 pic.twitter.com/lF6iSlo6Iw
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) March 8, 2022
Gender equality in English football is “in the dark ages”
Gender equality in English football is “in the dark ages” and is contributing to the sport’s failing finances, according to a new report by the Fair Game group, which is made up from 34 clubs across the pyramid.
A whopping two-thirds of England and Wales’ leading clubs have ALL-MALE boards a study by the organisation found. YEP. ALL. MALE.
Because, sure, women don’t care about football right? (As someone who has suffered under the life-long affliction of being an Everton fan, I beg to differ).
Published today Fair Game found clubs to be “hugely naive” when it comes to catering for and marketing to female fans, and that they are missing out on vital revenue as a result.
The report - catchily named ‘The Gender Divide That Fails Football’s Bottom Line: The Commercial Case for Gender Equality’ - found just 11.1% of board members at Premier League clubs were women, dropping to just 4.2% in the Championship. This compares to 39.1% on the boards of FTSE 100 companies.
This comes after the Football Association reported in November that clubs and governing bodies signed up to the Football Leadership Diversity Code (FLDC) had collectively failed to hit any of the recruitment targets set related to women in the scheme’s first 10 months.
FLDC targets to hire females in senior leadership, team operations and women’s club coaching roles were all missed.
The Fair Game report notes that clubs are really missing a trick - as diverse boards make for more financial success and better decision making. Duh.
Dr Stacey Pope, co-author of the report and an Associate Professor at Durham University, added:
We looked at all aspects of how football operates at the moment and in a large number of cases clubs are living in the dark ages and are failing to cater adequately for 51 per cent of the population.
Preach Dr Pope.
The BBC have done a series of really interesting interviews with three “femicide detectives”.
As it notes: “femicide - the killing of women and girls because of their gender - is the most extreme form of gender-based violence, but in many countries no record is kept of the number of cases.”
The BBC spoke to Gulsum Kav in Turkey, who began a campaign to stop femicide in 2010, the year after the dead body of a teenager, Munevver Karabulut, was found in a bin in Istanbul. It took police more than six months to track down the suspect, leading to protests on the streets of Istanbul.
She and the We Will Stop Femicide Team also looked into the case of Esin Gunes, a young teacher whose body was found at the bottom of a cliff in Siirt province, south-eastern Turkey, in August 2010.
The BBC reports:
Esin’s husband said they had gone to the area for a walk and a picnic, and she had slipped to her death. While the authorities initially accepted this story, the family didn’t, as Esin had only recently returned to her husband after walking out and saying she wanted a divorce.
Gulsum’s team commissioned a report which proved it was not physically possible to fall in the way she did and that she must have been thrown. This led to her husband’s conviction for murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Since that first case, the team has worked on over 30 suspected femicides.
Read the full story here.
In the UK, the government’s big IWD announcement centres around the launch of a “global business partnership” to improve girls’ access to education and employment in developing countries by providing high quality skills training.
Here’s the gist of it:
- the UK government is contributing an initial £9 million, with businesses providing £11 million in total
- the programme aims to provide high quality skills training to around 1 million girls around the world
Touted as “the UK’s first education partnership of its kind” - the government is teaming up with the private sector to boost girls’ access to education, working in partnership with UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited (GenU) to help deliver the programme.
Businesses, charities, schools and colleges will be able to bid for funds from the programme, with a focus on providing the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills needed to find work in key sectors such as technology and manufacturing.
Initially bids will be encouraged for projects in Nigeria and Bangladesh, two countries where significant barriers to girls’ education remain.
Boris Johnson said:
The United Kingdom has long been a proud and mighty champion of this fundamental cause and today we take one leap further through our first Global Partnership of its kind - opening the opportunity for one million girls across the developing world to have access to high quality skills training.
Ensuring every girl and young woman across the globe receives 12 years of quality education is the greatest tool in our armoury to end the world’s great injustices.
Delivering on this mission will be one of the best defences against ignorance, ensure the greatest protection from prejudice and put a rocket booster behind our hopes and dreams for global development in the years to come.
Police must call out sexism in force, says chief taking on violence against women
The issue of men’s violence against women is a huge topic on any International Women’s Day, but this year has seen a particular focus on the issue - particularly in the UK where the rape and murder of Sarah Everard sparked a national debate that is ongoing.
I spoke to the new national police lead Maggie Blyth yesterday, just before she got on a flight to attend a IWD event in Dublin.
It was an interesting conversation, because unlike the former Metropolitan policer chief Cressida Dick Blyth was very candid about the extent of the problems with sexism and misogyny in the police force. She admitted that the police can attract some men who want to use the powers of being a police officer “to exert and coerce” vulnerable people - even while vehemently insisting that the vast majority of the force are horrified by the actions of some of those in their ranks.
Here’s an extract:
Policing attracts some men who want “to exert and coerce” vulnerable people, the new national police lead on violence against women has admitted, as she urged officers to create a “call-out culture” to tackle sexist and misogynistic behaviour.
Deputy chief constable Maggie Blyth, who took up the post of national lead for violence against women and girls (VAWG) at the National Police Chiefs’ Council five months ago, said it was wrong to dismiss abusive, violent or sexist officers as a “few bad apples”.
She added that policing scandals of the past 12 months, including the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, had been a “stark check”.
“That was so shocking to policing that it rocked the whole of the service in a way that we really hadn’t seen since the murder of Stephen Lawrence,” said Blyth in an interview with the Guardian to mark International Women’s Day on Tuesday. “It felt, and continues to feel, like a watershed moment.”
It's International Women's Day!
All over the world today people are celebrating International Women’s Day with a spirit of solidarity and fortitude in these uncertain times.
Today we will be liveblogging throughout the day, bringing you news of events from around the world, as well as data, research ...and your stories!
My name is Lexy Topping and I would love to hear how you are marking International Women’s Day today, so please do get in touch.
You can contact me on Alexandra.Topping@theguardian.com or on Twitter I am @lexytopping - my DMs are open.
