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Writer's pictureAnahita Labh

International Women's Day

(Buckle up. This is going to be a long one.)


International Women’s Day, first celebrated in 1911, is now marked annually on the 8th of March. This year, the Inclusion & Equity Team attended South China Morning Post’s conference, ‘Women Of Our Time’. The panel of speakers discussed many issues, ranging from the gender wage gap to menstrual health. Its focus was on empowering the next generation of female leaders. Today, we bring you the highlights and key takeaways from the conference and the following IWD Breakfast.


The first part of the panel discussed equal pay and the importance of women in traditionally male-dominated industries, such as finance and STEM. As highly demanding and always-changing sectors, employment rates are high. But women tend to drift away from these industries because of the male dominance and the misogyny that comes with it. Since the pandemic, the percentage of women in science and technology has decreased severely. In order to ensure a more equal future, men and women need to be on the same level. They should have equal opportunities and scopes for employment. And this starts with closing the wage gap.


At the rate we’re proceeding at, it will take another 132 years for the wage gap to close entirely. In many countries, women are making 70% or even 50% of what their male colleagues do. This means that our generation, and the minimum of the next two generations will not have equal pay between men and women. To combat this, we need to start now. Women, stand up for yourself. Don’t stay quiet. Raise your voice and confront those above you. Keep asking for what you want, and don’t stop until you get it. You can’t change your environment. Unconscious bias still exists, and people still think that men are more capable of doing your job than you are. You’re not being unreasonable, you’re simply fighting for equality. Your paycheck should reflect your hard work, your qualifications. It shouldn’t be determined by gender or race.


To combat the gender power gap, some companies, and some countries have implemented gender quotas. In Spain, the Prime Minister proposed gender quotas for businesses and governments. 40% of these leaders have to be women. Good in theory. But in practice? Gender shouldn’t make a difference. Hard work should. We want equity, equality. We all want to start at the same playing field. Instead of making these decisions, which can be very difficult to maintain, why not look at what women want? Menstrual leave, better postpartum care. We want our hard work to be rewarded and our needs to be provided for. Gender quotas seem like a good way to increase equality, but they don’t account for the individuals who prefer to be in supporting roles. Support isn’t a bad thing. It’s necessary. It’s important. But the principal thing to consider is choice? Would implementing mandatory gender quotas reduce free will and the right to choose? What do you think, dear reader? Do let us know.


The second topic covered by the panel was menstrual care. Yes, periods. Blood. The dreaded ‘Shark Week’. Luüna Naturals is a brand founded by women for women. It aims to provide affordable menstrual care in workplaces and schools. Their products are environmentally-friendly and sustainable. Luüna’s research found that 90% of women in the workforce had at some point created a DIY pad. After so many years of having periods, from the age of eleven or twelve, why aren’t we more prepared? And in the case of an emergency, we are still charged for pads. This is a prevalent issue not only in workplaces, but in many schools across the world. And in Hong Kong, including in KGV. In many countries in the world, pads and tampons are classed as ‘luxury products’, meaning that we pay the colloquially known ‘pink tax’ for them. Why are these monthly necessities classed as luxuries? Why are we unable to access these products in times of emergency without paying the fees? To combat this, Luüna provides affordable and sustainable menstrual products and dispensers to be installed in schools and workplaces.


Randomly installing dispensers in the bathrooms would backfire. “What is this strange new box and why is it here?” Why so? Stigma, that’s why. Many parents don’t fully educate their children, no matter their gender, about periods. Dissociating menstruation, a perfectly natural process that 50% of the population goes through monthly, from stigma, can help to combat the sheer lack of menstrual care found in schools and workplaces.


Girls, you all know what periods are like. How many of you actually learned all about it from your parents? How many of you had opened, unashamed conversations with your parents about menstruation, and what it entailed? On the flip side, how many of you didn’t? How many of you still use euphemisms when talking about your period? How many of you are ashamed to ask your parents to buy pads? Or tampons? Or painkillers? De-stigmatising menstruation entails people to see menstrual care as healthcare. Because it is.


Biology lessons in Year 11 explain the medical process of menstruation. But come on, Year 11? How many of you remember frantically googling your symptoms at eleven or twelve, convinced that you were dying? Now imagine you knew about periods at nine or ten. You knew exactly what was happening inside your body. Now I’m not saying we need to know the difference between oestrogen and progesterone at nine, but knowing the basics of menstruation at that age helps to remove horror from the experience. Instead of “oh my God, I’m dying,” we’d see something along the lines of “okay, I’ve started my period. I need to tell my parents, and I need pads. Or tampons.” Normalise periods. Because they are normal.


Young girls going through menstruation for the first time generally have no idea what periods are, what the symptoms are, or how to deal with them. Shouldn’t we be talking about this more? 50% of the population go through this monthly, and yet there’s so much stigma and taboo around it. Is it just the conservative Asian mindset, or are we that patriarchal? Let us know in the comments. (And for all the girls out there, keep an eye out for a short guide to menstruation coming out soon.)


Stemming off these ideas, the Inclusion & Equity team discussed the effects of lacking menstrual health education. Menstruation is almost never seen as a valid excuse for anything. Unless of course someone tells you, “you’re being angry, are you on your period?” The stigma surrounding menstruation leads to a lack of trust placed in those who menstruate. A girl on her period has a very valid excuse to refrain from physical activity. Even more so that common side effects include nausea, vomiting, headaches, fainting and breast tenderness (which is another pain in itself).


Many girls also suffer from endometriosis, where the uterine tissue grows outside the uterus; or polycystic ovaries syndrome/disease. Have you ever heard those terms before? Likely not. These issues are common, plaguing up to 30% of the population. They can be caused by many things: hormonal imbalances, vitamin/mineral deficiencies, stress. Or just simple genes. But these issues are so rarely heard and even more rarely believed. Across the world, we hear stories of teachers who force menstruating girls to participate in physical activity; many of these cases lead to detrimental side effects. Yes, there are many people who ‘take advantage’ of their periods and lie about them to get out of physical activity. This does lead to less trust placed in those who are truthful. But shouldn’t teachers be inclined to believe? After all, menstruation, premenstrual syndrome and post-menstrual side effects are very real. Just because you’re not currently bleeding out of your vagina doesn’t mean that you’re not suffering from the hormonal side effects, which cause just as much pain.


The taboo around periods leads to sexist commentary. Ladies, how many of you have been asked “are you on your period?” whenever you show a little emotion, or passion, or anger? It happens all too often. And then we go into the idea that “women are more emotional than men.” Here’s a little secret: when you’re on your period, your testosterone levels increase. (Yes, women have testosterone.) It’s not much, but it’s enough. So really, when you’re on your period, you’re not being emotional, your hormones slightly mimic those of a man’s. (Oh how the tables have turned.) So no. Women aren’t more “emotional” than men. No. Showing emotion isn’t a bad thing. And no. Your gender and your hormones should not dictate how well you can do your job, or how well you can lead a team.


And still, we have unconscious bias. A woman’s reputation is so heavily tied to her sexual prowess. And surprisingly, it’s not as many men as women who begin rumours about sex and call you a ‘whore’ behind your back. This year’s conference focused on empowering young female leaders. And how is it empowering if women are still putting down women? As a woman, you are judged for your hair, your clothes, your skin. Whether you wear make-up, or don’t. And these things have been so normalised, they’re expected. From a very young age, we experience the mentality of competition. You are competing against every other girl. For what? Nobody really knows. But you have to be the prettiest, the smartest, the most popular. People should fawn over you, you should have boyfriends, dates, love and romance. But god forbid you have premarital sex! Huge no-no.


These (frankly double-sided) ideas of the 'ideal life' leads to casual slander, comparing sizes and a toxic mindset, even in friend groups. It leads to slut shaming and peer pressure and mental health issues. Currently, slut-shaming isn’t presented as as big of an issue as it should be. A person can get suspended for saying certain words towards certain people; but there are no measures in place to control slut-shaming. So we make the measures ourselves. Call people out, stand your ground. Don’t back away from conflict.


How will we, as a society, ever change? If women can’t support women? Start now. And be the change you want to see in the world. I’m aware that this was slightly too long. Congratulations if you made it to the end. My word of advice to you all: hard work determines your future. Work hard, don’t accept bias. Break down the walls of stigma. Show the world that women support each other, and build a more accepting society for future generations. Be the woman of your dreams, be the woman of change.


For more information about this year’s conference, take a look at this piece by Charmaine Carvalho, writing for SCMP’s “Lunar”. Lunar releases a newsletter every Friday, celebrating the achievements of the women of Asia. A wonderful read to start the weekend.


Thank you to Dharuka Jeerasinghe, Isabella Cagliarini, Krisheena Panjabi, Poppy West and Tai Chapple for taking the time to meet with me and discuss your experiences at this year’s conference, and for supplementing with the ideas that stemmed from the panel discussions.


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