On the eve of International Women’s Day 2021, it’s encouraging to see so many events being held and stories being shared about the many paths to becoming a successful woman. The fact that the theme this year is about action – #ChooseToChallenge – also really resonates with me. I believe that action can be more inclusive than we imagine.

One of the recent books I’ve read mentioned a psychological theory of change that contained 5 stages:

  1. Pre-contemplation – the way you’ve been existing before you even know there’s anything you want to change.
  2. Contemplation – when you start to think about changing something.
  3. Determination – when you reach the conclusion about the change you need to make.
  4. Action – when you actually do something to make that change happen.
  5. Maintenance – the hard work of avoiding any backsliding, and picking yourself up when it happens.

Each person will be in a different place on this arc when it comes to perceptions of gender. They’ll even be in different places about different facets of the debate. The #ChooseToChallenge theme fits in determination for me – it’s a declaration of the commitment you’re about to make. The individuals who then follow through on it will be taking action to do something different, and in doing so, they may nudge people from pre-contemplation into contemplation, or even from contemplation into determination.

I mention this because sometimes I think people feel we’re further on as a society than we really are. I get the sense that people think we’ve achieved gender equality now: if women want to have the high powered careers that men have historically dominated (as if that’s all it’s about), they can. It’s not true and we’ve had a myriad of articles in recent months about the ‘she-cession’ to support that. There’s been a disproportionate impact on women from COVID-19. Some of this is directly the loss of jobs. Some is about women continuing to be the main carers for elderly family and children. Sometimes the latter has probably contributed to the former.

A solution to this cannot only come from women. It also doesn’t only come from men and women. The gender debate and our societal change cannot just be about achieving equality for men and women. Our contemplation needs to be broader and it needs to lead to more determination and action. Gender identity is a spectrum. Gender discussions need to include people who identify as transgender, non-binary or intersex. IWD should not be a binary discussion, and women advocating on this topic know from their own motivations why other voices need to be heard, too.

So here’s my thought as we head into International Women’s Day – for those who are being given a platform to influence, who are appealing to others to #ChooseToChallenge and are making commitments themselves – let’s all make a commitment to challenge behaviours about inclusion that go beyond the gender binary. We need a solution that works for everyone.

Thank you for reading.