More action than noise on Women's Day?

Last Tuesday Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “This Women’s Day, I will give away my social media accounts to women whose life and work inspire us. This will help them ignite motivation in millions”. He urged women all over the country to share their stories by taking control of his social media accounts for a day. The prime minister further added, “Are you such a woman or do you know such inspiring women? Share such stories using #SheInspiresUs”. With more than 130 million followers across platforms, PM Modi is without doubt the most influential Indian political leader online. Throwing open his vast “social real estate” to women has been welcomed with much applause, and appreciation.

The PM’s clarion call acted as a starter gun for various governmental agencies, galvanising them to action.  The Ministry of Human Resource Development, for example, said it would in collaboration with the University Grants Commission (UGC), be conducting round tables on seven themes … education, health and nutrition, empowerment of women, skills and entrepreneurship and participation in sports, rural women and agriculture and urban women … in about 40 central universities around the country. But the most interesting initiative announced is a special week-long programme commissioned by Doordarshan featuring chef Sanjeev Kapoor to highlight special recipes for healthy and nutritious food for women during pregnancy.

Elsewhere in the world, things are being done a bit differently. Microsoft, for example, is hosting a series of events to help girls learn the latest technology skills and coding basics to mark the International Women's Day. Microsoft's store on London's Regent Street will host hour-long coding classes entitled “Barbie: you can be anything”. Attendees will have the chance to learn basic block coding concepts in a fun session built around Barbie and her friends, who will be represented as robotic engineers or astronauts. As part of the session, female leaders from different industries will be sharing their knowledge and journeys to success via a live stream. The emphasis at Microsoft this year is on “do” and “dare” rather than “discuss” and “debate”.

Arch-rival Apple is similarly hosting a number of interactive sessions in London and in other geographies, dubbed “She Creates”, giving girls the chance to learn a range of new skills from inspiring female creators. Sessions include an art lab focusing on pictures of positivity, hosted by illustrator Nikki Miles, and a design lab featuring Sophie Walker, chief executive of Young Women’s Trust and author of Five Rules for Rebellion. Walker’s session will focus on activism. There is also a coding lesson focusing on augmented reality and enhancing product skills using Apple’s latest iPad, iPhone and Mac products.

The Women’s Day agenda at some other corporates has been a little different. Unilever, this past week, announced that it has the same number of women as men in leadership roles globally for the first time — a year ahead of its goal to achieve gender balance across management. Unilever went on record to say that improvements had been driven by its dedicated diversity and inclusion team to implement a number of initiatives, including a network of nearly 100 diversity and inclusion champions, who have been driving inclusive culture across its markets. Alan Jope, Unilever's chief executive officer in fact emphasized, “Women’s equality is the single greatest unlock for social and economic development globally and having a gender-balanced workforce should be a given, not something that we aspire to”.

Thankfully, the narrative around Women’s Day is changing. Finally, more action than noise. Yes, there will be new brand campaigns this weekend by multiple brands on woman emancipation, and empowerment. But much of those are empty lip-service. Films created either for peer appreciation, or just to look good as a brand. The actual path to the future is what Unilever is doing: Giving women their deserved place on the decision-making table. Giving them equal opportunities; according them real equality. Giving them respect; giving them regard.

The biggest challenge facing women in India today, strangely enough is patriarchy. Regardless of a woman’s experience, education or abilities, the patriarchal nature of our society fosters the perception that women are less qualified and less competent than men. What patriarchy has done is convince people that a strong and intelligent woman represents a problem; a disruption to the social order rather than an integral part of it. Actions like PM Modi opening up his social media handles to catalyse change, and to usher in a better tomorrow can help alter some of these biases of the past. For a country that worships Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati for wealth and learning, and venerates Ma Durga as the manifestation of shakti, coming to terms with women-power should actually not be an issue. Yes, the narrative is being re-configured; the dialogues are being re-written but the overall plot itself needs urgent metamorphosis … in the Microsoft and Apple mould.

Sandeep Goyal is an advertising and media veteran