In less than four weeks, on 8 March, it will be international women’s day. This is an opportunity to celebrate the often undervalued contributions and sometimes forgotten struggles of women both historically and today. We are therefore encouraging all our supporters to do what they can to ensure that there is a public event in their town to celebrate international women’s day (which is on a Sunday, so feel free to have your event on the day, or in the week before or after).
We have two particularly relevant training units:
This session looks at the way Sylvia and her comrades organised the communities of the East End of London and asks those present to think about the similarities and the differences between the challenges of 100 years ago and those of today. It is a very popular unit, and easy to deliver because, as with all our sessions, you don’t need to be an expert to deliver it, as it has a full set of slides, speakers notes and handouts.
On 29 May this year, it will be the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Equal Pay Act 1970, and still women are paid less than men for doing the same work or work of equal value. This session explores the mechanics that have led to a systematic undervaluing of women at work, and asks: ‘what are we going to do to change this?’ It is a great tool for facilitating a discussion on how to organise locally to pressurise firms to observe the law. It also links to the Equality Trust’s ‘lifetime loss calculator’ which allows women to estimate the lifetime cost of gender pay disparity to themselves based on their salary and their employer.
If you are not already part of a group, one of the easiest way to get a venue and to get a good attendance is to think about what groups are in your area that might be interested, so a women’s group within a local student union, the political officer of a local political party, a local group of either the Women’s Institute or the Fawcett society, would all be great people to approach. Equally, you could approach a local branch (or even your branch) of a trade union, or if all else fails, why not invite ten friends round to your front room, and do the session at home using your computer screen? Let's make this happen
If you need any help with getting something sorted, check out our guidance on hosting an event, and then if you still have questions, please contact us, but in the meantime, do download the materials above and try to get something running in your town.
Let's make international women's day an occasion to sharpen our skills so that we are better able to meet the challenges of today.
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