The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day seems to match the current sentiment around much of the globe. A day without a woman… What would that mean for us?
In equal measure, Hillary Clinton’s loss and the success of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election have reminded many of us what it means to be a woman in the workforce here in the United States, at every level. In the nonprofit sector, the pay differential between male and female leaders executives continues to increase, with women earning anywhere between 21 and 47 percent less than their male counterparts. All along the corporate ladder, women are underrepresented: 45% of posts are occupied by women at the entry level and this figure drops to 37% at management, 32% at senior management, 27% at vice presidential, and 23% at senior vice president levels with only 17% of C-suite positions going to women.
So what would it look like then, if all women stopped working?
This #ADWAW, we reflect on our own work as members of the Communications Team here at CIVICUS, a global alliance of over 3,600 civil society organizations and activists. We are an organization comprised mostly of women, our communications team is 80% women, and our Washington DC office is all – but one – women. Our team is responsible for everything from creating communications strategies, designing marketing materials, drafting and editing content (like this!), organizing and presenting at events (join us at the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women!), developing websites, managing social media, media relations, all as part of communicating the activities of the CIVICUS Alliance to ensure that we do our part in protecting and promoting civic space and our fundamental freedoms.
While we CAN’T say that the organization would entirely fall apart without us, we can definitely say it would look a lot lonelier…
By Ellie Stephens and Katie Mattern, Washington DC