March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD) and around the world, people of all genders and identities are calling for a more inclusive and equitable society.
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It is also a chance to simply celebrate women, their achievements, hopes, and the vital role they play in their families and communities.
The Macleay Argus spoke to women around Kempsey. You can see their pictures and comments in the gallery at the top of this post.
IWD was borne out of the labour movement and has been celebrated since 1911 worldwide and in Australia since 1928.
Competing themes
The United Nations (UN) began celebrating IWD in 1975 and, two years later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming March 8 a day for Women's Rights.
But is has also become a day of competing themes.
The UN and UN Women has chosen the theme for 2023 to be "DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality". It recognises that, globally:
- women make up only 22 per cent of artificial intelligence workers
- an analysis of 133 AI systems across industries found that 44.2 per cent demonstrate gender bias, and
- a survey of women journalists from 125 countries found that 73 per cent had suffered online violence in the course of their work.
UN Women Australia have adapted the theme to: "Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future".
But the one many people are sharing across social media, and which is appearing at the top of search engine results, is #EmbraceEquity. It is actually a corporate theme created by the company Aurora Ventures, which "works with stakeholders" to come up with business-friendly themes."
Historically, purple was a colour that denoted justice and dignity, and now it is used to represent women. Green is a symbol of hope. Today, purple is the colour of International Women's Day, and combined with green represents the feminist movement.
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