‘It’s vital that we sing the praises of our women role models. We must work hard to inspire the future generation of women leaders to build upon the achievements of the past.’
March always marks International Women’s Day (IWD) and this year it falls on Saturday 11 March. IWD is a time for us to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
I love being a woman and I love being a woman MP — number 430 — but I worry that we are sending some bad messages to young women. Once they have navigated adolescence, which is hard for everyone, we talk about pay gaps, glass ceilings, judgment about whether they will have a child, worry about whether they can have a child, constantly having to refight the battle that, “It is my body and I control it,” and the violence. Then there is the menopause, osteoporosis and the pensions gap, and then they might find themselves in an inadequate care system that employs low-paid women to support older women facing social isolation. It is not a happy picture, is it?
There are many issues that, of course, blight women’s lives in my constituency and beyond, but I want to challenge that narrative and celebrate how great it is to be a woman. Bristol Women’s Voice, an exceptional local organisation in our city, also wants to use International Women’s Day to celebrate being a woman.
On Saturday 11 March at City Hall they will be bringing together more than 100 contributors and partners to run workshops, performance, exhibitions, activities and talks.
Activities will include health, nurture, poetry, music, film and photography, dance and visual arts. It will be just like a carnival!
The full programme will be published shortly here.
It’s vital that we sing the praises of our women role models. There have been so many from Bristol I cannot even start to list them. And we need to ensure that conversations and education focus not only on what women can achieve, but on how important our male allies are, and that tackling many of the challenges mentioned in the news today requires change in the dominant culture surrounding male behaviour.
As the Chair of the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party I have a simple message to the women of Bristol: Together we can make a difference to our communities. We must work hard to inspire the future generation of women leaders to build upon the achievements of the past. We must always stand up and be heard.
With thanks to South Bristol Voice for sharing Karin’s column.
