This week our feeds have been flooded with #girlbosses and shoutouts to our powerful female mentors. We’ve liked inspirational stories of women succeeding against the odds. We’ve put out cotton-candy-coloured appeals to recognise the business value of women in positions of power.
But for many Australian women, this International Women’s Day came too soon after the latest ‘scandals’ in our government to be anything other than an exhausting reminder that we still need an International Women’s Day.
While we believe elevating our female colleagues and friends is always important, if you’ve been left feeling a little cynical by the hyper-positivity of this week – especially given the depressing tone of the month preceding it – you’re not alone.
So, this International Women’s Day, we’re not going to make a business case for women in power.
We could re-publish the graphs that show that female-led businesses consistently perform at a higher standard and a higher profit margin than their male led equivalents. We could demonstrate again the way that the benefits demanded by female leaders trickle down to other employees in the form of flexible working arrangements and healthier workplace cultures. We could even reiterate the benefits of a diverse team in communicating with and understanding clients.
But that information is already out there. It’s been out there for years.
Instead, we’ll just say this:
Women are qualified, competent and accomplished. We shouldn’t still be making a case for hiring, promoting and paying them equally.