International Women’s Day 2021 is just around the corner and, here at Manchester Young Professionals, we’re going to be hosting and running a series of virtual events and talks that focus exclusively on women and the continuing fight for gender equality in Manchester, the UK, and around the world.

As we’ll detail in today’s blog, for the day itself, we’re going to be hearing stories from women, discussing important topics such as gender bias, gender equality and the reasons we still need a specific day to highlight women’s issues. We’re so excited to get into these topics and hopefully move the conversation forward in our own small way.

For more information about our plans to promote rights for women and International Women’s Day as a whole, keep your eyes on our social media, particularly our Instagram, or sign up to our mailing list, to be among the first to hear about how you can participate and get involved. In addition, we’re always open to new speakers and ideas so if you think there is something we should be doing for this event that we’re not, then please tell us – get in touch by email at info@mcryoungprofessionals.com or give us a call on 0161 327 1385 – we’d love to hear from you.

The Events MYP Are Planning To Promote Equality And Equal Rights

On Monday 8th March, we’ve got a day packed with exciting and insightful events, below is a brief outline of what you can expect. While the exact details are yet to be released this will give you a flavour of what to expect on IWD 2021. As ever, for more information, be sure to follow us on Instagram where we’ll be detailing all the information this Thursday.

  • 12:00 Women’s Health in the Workplace – An IG Live Panel Talk
  • 18:00 Pilates with Amy Hughes – Zoom workout, booking link coming soon
  • 19:00 Cocktail Hour – More info coming soon

As well as these events, throughout the day, we’ll be encouraging people to run 5k and make a donation to Women’s Aid, which do such important work for women who are suffering from domestic abuse. We’ll also be running several Question Time like IGTV talks with women in the industry – keep your eyes peeled for announcements.

When Is International Women’s Day 2021 And What Is It?

This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) will take place, as it always does, on 8th March and exists to fulfil several key points. From celebrating women’s achievements and raising awareness about women’s issues, right the way to lobbying for gender parity and helping to fundraise for female-focused charities. IWD is over a century old and the first official day took place 110 years ago and was honoured by Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In fact, more than a million people attended rallies that campaigned for the empowerment of women including their right to work, vote, be trained in new skills, to hold public office, and end discrimination.

110 years later and IWD remains as significant as it did back in 1911 for a variety of different reasons. Millions of women across the world still do not have equal rights, are threatened by violence or oppression from governments, don’t have the right to vote or other fundamental human rights that we have come to expect. IWD is symbolised by 3 colours – purple, green, and white. These colours symbolise the struggle for equality, with each colour having a particular meaning. Purple signifies justice and dignity, green symbolises hope, and white represents purity.

What Is This Year’s Campaign Theme?

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #ChooseToChallenge which is about ensuring that people challenge themselves, their opinions, and preconceived notions – as IWD say “from challenge, comes change”. This theme is all about challenging and calling out blatant, and more discreet forms, of gender bias and inequality. By doing this, we can help to celebrate women in leadership, and women’s achievements as a whole – all to create a more inclusive world.

To encourage participation the #ChooseToChallenge pose was launched, encouraging people to take a picture of themselves holding their hand high to show their commitment to challenge gender issues, and use their privilege to help further gender parity. You can submit your own image here.

Why We Have International Women’s Day

While it may seem obvious to you and us here at MYP, sadly many still question the importance of this day. Well, thankfully, campaign group If Not Now has compiled 10 important reasons why we still need International Women’s Day. For this blog, we’ve picked out 5 of the most compelling, to view them all be sure to visit the page.

How You Can Help?

There are many ways you can help support International Women’s Day and promote the cause of equal rights. One of the main ways, as well as through your words and actions, is your donations. We’ve compiled a few links to places you can donate to:

Get In Touch

To learn more about our events, and how we are committed to the cause of women’s rights in Manchester and across the UK, please get in touch with us by email at info@mcryoungprofessionals.com or give us a call on 0161 327 1385.

We’re always open to hearing from people too so if you think there is something we could be doing, a charity or organisation that deserves our attention, or an upcoming International Women’s Day event that you feel isn’t getting the spotlight it deserves – we want to hear about it!