What do girls on bikes have to do with GDP and IWD?
What do girls on bikes have to do with International Women’s Day and measuring Gross Domestic Product? Aurora Ventures (Europe) Limited own the domain name and website www.internationalwomensday.com.
Their IWD campaigns are about selling media packages to companies that want to do a bit of PR — even those companies that have a terrible track record for supporting women but just want to sell to them. Every year Aurora Ventures choose a theme and a cute symbol that their clients can use to show their lip service commitment to women they employ or sell products to. Aurora gives a bit of money to selected charities so all’s right with world, eh?
Many of these companies are called out every year when the gender pay gap in their companies is exposed. However, the argument goes, if these companies sell more, it all contributes to Gross Domestic Product and that’s a good thing, right? If more things are made and sold the economy is growing and we’re all better off. But are we?
This article challenges that assumption and offers a very different way to measure how we’re doing as a society. It’s about girls on bikes — an unlikely economic measurement but it makes a lot of sense (to me and hopefully, to you too): Replacing GDP with girls on bikes.
I’m delighted to have been selected as a representative of the UK delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women for the third year running. At CSW68, governments, civil society organizations, experts and activists from across the world will come together to agree on actions and investments that can work towards ending women’s poverty and advance gender equality. We may not be talking about girls on bikes but it will be a long way from the false performance of many IWD PR campaigns.
It feels like I’ve been doing this work for a long time — since getting involved in the Equal Opportunities Commission many years ago — and sometimes we seem to take two steps forward and one step back. Changing legislation is a long way from changing hearts and minds but there are a lot of people doing amazing work and making that work known is always worth it.
If you want to join in, follow the work of UN Women and cheer the efforts to get more girls on bikes. If you’re involved in or know of any IWD events that really make a difference, let me know!
#IWD #IWD2024
