International Women’s Day 2023
by Chantal Greaves- Cowan , Human Resources & Facilities Manager/Corporate Secretary, UWI Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day observed on 8thMarch each year, celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements. IWD began as National Women’s Day in the US in 1909, following a period of great unrest and critical debate occurring amongst women across the world. In 1910, at an International Conference for Working Women, the idea of the commemoration of an IWD across 17 countries, was born, to press for women’s demands.
IWD is now observed annually across the world, including in Trinidad & Tobago, to celebrate women’s progress but also to continue to agitate for and make strides in the battle for women’s equality and emancipation. At the Lok Jack GSB, where 60% of our full-time staff are women, we also see it as important to celebrate IWD and women’s achievements in general, and to recognize that men have made and can continue to make valuable allies in the continuing struggle to advance gender parity and effect mindset shifts that advance women’s causes.
In celebration of this year’s global theme, #EmbraceEquity, some of our Lok Jack GSB women have, among other things, gotten together in the traditional IWD purple, some have written about the theme and what it means to them, and we’ve even had a little fun with a draw and a prize give-away! Over the coming days, we will give you glimpses into our small-scale commemoration and celebration. We say thank you to all of our women who came out to join in the celebrations (post-pandemic, we adopted a hybrid approach to working, so we don’t all see one another every day) and to those who accepted the challenge to share their thoughts on #Embrace Equity.
You may read the detailed version of what they each had to say on our website https://lokjackgsb.edu.tt/lok-jack-gsb-celebrates-international-womens-day-2023/.
We all hope for the day that an IWD is not absolutely necessary, but until then…….