07 Mar International Women’s Day 2023

#EmbraceEquity #IWD2023

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights” ~ Gloria Steinem

March 8th is recognized around the world as International Women’s Day—a global day of celebration for the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day is also a call to action for advancing women’s equality.

Equality versus Equity

Curious to review the distinction, I found these definitions, courtesy of Merriam-Webster:

‘Equality comes from the Middle French word equalité,… …referring to sameness of amount as well as of status or of shape.’

‘Equity came from the French derivative of aequitas, equité; in French it means “justice” or “rightness,” and those meanings, plus a splash of fairness, have come down to us in the English word as well.’

So, in essence:

‘The idea that sometimes sameness of treatment (equality) does not result in proportional fairness (equity)’.

Progress on Gender Equality

Equality requires women to have equitable access to, and control over, economic resources, including having the time and opportunity to engage in economic activities.

We have a long way to go. On Sustainable Development Goal #5, Gender Equality, ‘Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls’, the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2022 report shows:

• It would take another 40 years for women and men to be represented equally in national political leadership. Woman’s role in national parliaments grew by less than 5% between 2015 and 2022.
• Women accounted for 39% of total employment in 2019 but 45% of global Employment Losses in 2020.
• More than 1 in 4 women (15 + years) have been subjected to intimate partner violence at least once in their lifetime.

Because women’s empowerment is such an important element of building a better future for all, gender-specific benchmarks are included for ten additional goals, many of which have worsened since the pandemic.

From ‘Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2022’:

• Goal # 1, No Poverty, “In 2022, a projected 938 million women and girls live on less than $3.20 a day and 1.7 billion on less than $5.50 a day….” “For many, poverty puts essential services such as piped water and clean cooking fuel out of reach. Such deprivations propel other gender inequalities as women spend more time on unpaid care and domestic work.”
• Goal # 2, Zero Hunger, “Women are more likely than men to experience food insecurity, and the gender gap is growing. “.
• Goal # 6, Clean Water and Sanitation “Where access is severely limited, women and girls must often walk long distances to collect improved water.” “Unaffordable, inaccessible water has specific implications for women’s health” and “For young girls, water stress can have significant impacts on education”.

What can You do?

Most of us live in a world of vast abundance and it can be easy to make an impact by sponsoring a girl to go to school, funding microloans to women through an organization like kiva or supporting women owned businesses.

One of the reasons I love helping women plan for and invest in their financial foundation, is the empowerment that comes from them being in control of their money. Money doesn’t buy happiness, that is for sure, but in the right hands, it can be directed to support change for the good of all.

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ~ Mother Teresa

Want to build wealth so you can increase the impact you have in the world? Not sure where to start? Setup a free discovery call: Contact me.

#IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity #inspiredfinancialplanning #inspiredwealth #financialplanning #heartstrongwealthplanning

Link to Kiva.org

Link to Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2022

Link to SDG #5

Prepared by Heart Strong Wealth Planning Copyright 2023.

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Burbaud at Pexels.