The Ugly Side Of International Women’s Day That Nobody Talks About
It’s been milked to the point of dryness.
I am a woman and I dislike International Women’s Day.
There’s a reason for that. Just scroll through your Facebook feed, and you’ll see that it’s filled with stories like:
“Top Female Chefs Who Are Breaking Boundaries”
“Women Entrepreneurs Who Make It Happen”
“5 Female Bartenders Shaking Things Up”
“10 Female Baristas You Need To Know”
Don’t get me wrong — it is wonderful that women are recognised for their accomplishments (I’m in food and beverage, but the point is true of any industry, for that matter). But far from inspiring me, these female-equality campaigns and media stories highlighting women make me uneasy.
Have you ever seen a story titled ‘Top 5 Up-And-Coming Male Chefs’?
Why is there a need to single out women entrepreneurs, chefs, bartenders or baristas with stories and awards?
I admire organisations that consistently strive to close the gender gap. But that’s not always the case. The irony is, International Women’s Day seems to have become a way to further entrench the fact that women who make it are out of the norm.
And the media, especially, has a great deal of responsibility in that.
It’s one day a year when media and brands hop onto the equality bandwagon to produce short-lived campaigns or stories, highlighting female-ness and success ‘despite all odds’ in a male-dominated industry.
Stories on women are used as feel-good, cathartic trend bait. It’s like a website sugar rush.
When BrewDog launched a ‘Beer For Girls’
Along the same vein, Scottish craft beer company BrewDog launched a satirical line of beer to poke fun at lazy ‘for women’ marketing. They basically repackaged their IPA in a lurid pink bottle, called it ‘Pink IPA’ and labelled it as ‘Beer For Girls’. At a discount, no less.
If I could describe the backlash in a sexist way, it would be like ‘a wave of PMS’.
Men and women — especially women — sure did not appreciate BrewDog’s ironic attempt to fight a stereotype with a stereotype. After the campaign was released, people took to social media to express their displeasure, making sarcastic remarks about the craft beer company’s lack of tact on the issue.
According to their press release, ‘BrewDog is also using the Pink IPA campaign to call for clear and consistent reporting around calculating the gender pay gap and what businesses should do to close it’.
To be fair, BrewDog will donate 20% of of its Pink IPA proceeds for four weeks to causes that fight against gender inequality.
Would it have any real impact?
Maybe, maybe not.
But the fact remains that women around the world deal with real issues, whether it’s in food and beverage or any other industries. A gender wage gap, a disproportionate representation in senior positions, lack of sponsorship, sexual harassment, gender stereotypes — all these problems exist everywhere, right now. They’re being faced by your female friends, partners, family members.
And just paying lip service with ‘International Women’s Day’ stories or publicity stunts isn’t going to solve anything. Worse, it might create a false impression of progression, but with the status quo still securely in place.
The true measure of progress would be when women are featured alongside men — not just as a separate category, or a seasonal topic that’s repackaged once a year.
