Spring 2024
We can’t believe how much time has gone. The months have flown past while we have been busy. In recognition of International Women’s Day 2024 we want to share with you all the work we have been doing and the events we are involved with this week. We would also like to hear from you and there are plenty of opportunities below to get involved or to have your say.
International Women’s Day 2024 – The Theme Matters
We have a busy week ahead. But there is an important thing we want to get off our chest.
International Women’s Day is a day of recognition created by United Nations Women. – the global champions of equality for women.
The United Nations theme for IWD this year is Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress
“Investing in women and championing gender equality turbocharges a future where everyone in society can thrive, creating a world of boundless opportunity and empowerment for all.”
Please do read all the reasons why they chose this theme by visiting their website – the reasons are based on accelerating economic empowerment, understanding the ‘care society’, and how women can impact climate change.
- $360Billion is needed per year to achieve gender equality. This requires investment.
- Closing gender gaps in employment could boost GDP per capita by 20% but this requires investment.
- Closing gaps in care, and expanding services with decent jobs, could spark almost 300Million jobs by 2035 but only with investment.
This is such an important message. Please share where you can.
You may have seen the theme #InspireInclusion being used. This is a different theme created by the marketing company, Aurora Ventures who run the website international women’s day dot com.
We do not use this theme as it does not have the same evidence base or offer the same powerful and compelling message as that defined by United Nations Women.
We do understand that ‘inclusion’ is an important first rung of a long ladder towards equality for women – where women who are particularly disadvantaged or oppressed need the allyship of inclusion to create equity.
But we believe that raising awareness of how and why investment in women is critically needed recognises the power of women to bring about change and reinforces the agency that women have over that change.
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Women’s Health
We are proud to be working with NHS colleagues on the Dorset Women’s Health Strategy. Despite the huge limitations of lack of available funding, we have seen inspirational commitment to change from clinicians and managers alike. We will see a new online information, self-help and signposting hub in the autumn, and other workstreams tackle inequality, menopause, young women’s health, mental health and education.
Coming soon: As part of this programme we will be coming to you to ask what YOU want to see change, to hear YOUR stories and to make sure YOUR views are central to decisions and planning. Please help us to reach others by sharing this consultation when it is launched.
Safety and Justice
It has been a pleasure to have been working in partnership with Soroptimists International Bournemouth and Bournemouth University organising our Summit Meeting event. We know there is a long way to go to tackle the culture of violence against women and girls and all other aspects of women’s safety and justice. But this group of organisations determined to create change is growing all the time. Together we WILL make a difference.
Women in Employment
We have begun an exciting project with partners to look at the components of a good employer of women.
Our aspiration is to create a Charter Mark for Women. This work has identified 4 themes;
- Incentivising Rising Stars: To incentivise a pipeline of girls into a broader range of careers with employers with an inclusive culture and greater career opportunities.
- Recruiting Brilliance: To improve recruitment of women into industries where gender diversity is difficult or underrepresented.
- Retaining Talent: To retain women in employment and in higher paid positions narrowing the gender pay gap and the gender wealth gap.
- Growing Leaders: To create opportunities for development, advancement and promotion into senior, board level, leadership and CEO positions.
If you’d like to be involved, let us know at [email protected]
Women and Politics
What does YOUR candidate stand for?
We have ambitious plans to inform you of your candidate’s position on issues that affect you during the upcoming local elections in Dorset, Police and Crime Commissioner elections in May and the General Election in the Autumn.
During the run-up to the Local Elections in Dorset, we will be sending the Dorset Women’s Charter to all candidates and asking them whether they will ‘Stand for Women’. We will ask them whether they will make a pledge to uphold the 10 standards of the Charter if they are elected. We will publish the results on our website.
During Police and Crime Commissioner elections we will ask candidates three questions about their position on women’s safety and justice. We will publish the candidates’ responses on our website.
In preparation for the General Election, we will ask candidates their position on 5 policy issues that affect women – policies that relate to childcare, taxes, health, social care and workplace equality. We will publish their responses on our website.
We believe it is important that women understand the positions of all candidates when deciding to vote. Many policy issues affect men and women differently – like Transport, Housing, Childcare or Employment. And so we want to ensure YOU know who you’re voting for.
Women as Politicians
If you missed our event ‘Women in Politics – Are we being fairly represented’ You can read the report of the event here.
Only 30% of current Councillors in Dorset are Women and in BCP the number is 40%. We believe that there should be greater representation of women in politics and our report describes the barriers that women face in standing.
- Unhelpful stereotypes of politicians being male
- Inflexible locations and timings of meetings, voting and other involvement
- Culture of hostility and threats to safety
We plan to continue to work hard to be part of change to make the political arena better and safer for women.
Volunteer
We are growing fast and we need more help.
Everyone at Dorset Women CIC is a volunteer and we have a fantastic team who help us do what we do.
Could you join us?
From an hour a week to a fully support Internship, we have an opportunity for everyone. We have a LOT of things we want to do and simply can’t. Can you help?
- Help with our website – it takes a little effort to keep our website up to date. Do you have some experience with WordPress? Could you help us to keep our events page up to date? Make sure our reports and blogs are displayed properly?
- Admin – are you one of those people who can organise things, sort things out and take care of details? If so we need help with our logistics. Could that be you?
- Report Writing – we have a brilliant team of research volunteers because part of our ‘thing’ is to write reports that are based on evidence. Is that your thing too?
- Single Issue Experts – we are building networks of support around the specific Standards of the Dorset Women’s Charter. Could you join one of groups? These groups help us to plan our actions and get things done – whatever they are. If you have an interest in one of the Standards you could be helping to be part of the solution.
- Empowerment Network – this year will see the launch of our Empowerment Network. This is a mentorship matching project where we will match volunteer Mentors with disadvantaged women as Mentees – women who need a boost of empowerment. Could you help us to set this up? Recruit mentors? Build partnerships with charities who know potential mentees?
- Trainers – we are beginning to plan our education programme and we need people with experience to help us write the syllabus and develop the Business Plan. Could that be you?
Get in Touch
We have busy year ahead. Please follow us on Social Media at @DorsetWomen to keep up to date with all our activities. It helps us hugely if you can ‘like’ and comment on our posts. It may not seem much but it helps spread the word and let other people know about what we are doing. Even this one small thing can be an important contribution to changing society for women.
Have Your Say
If you want to get involved, talk with us or take part in any of our consultations. Email us at [email protected] or visit our website and click for Get Involved.
