International Women's Day website owners urged to stop 'exploiting' day

Photo: internationalwomensday.com

More than 900 people have signed an open letter calling on the owners of the website internationalwomensday.com to "contribute meaningfully" to the cause or step aside, reports The Guardian.

The letter argues that the platform has been "exploiting a social movement for financial gain without addressing the structural issues that International Women's Day was founded to highlight." It was written by two UK-based professionals and has been widely circulated on social media.

The criticism follows a report published in December by The Guardian, which revealed that a London-based marketing firm has for years operated a website that many British brands mistakenly believed to be linked to the United Nations' official International Women's Day initiative.

The United Nations has distanced itself from the site. Each year the website promotes its own theme for the day, which differs from the UN's official theme. This year, the site's theme is "Give to Gain."

Belinda Jane Batt, a coach who works with mothers and one of the letter's authors, said she felt compelled to speak out after years of observing the website's campaigns.

"There was just a lot of confusion that I was seeing on all of the social media channels and in my own networks of women about this conflation of the International Women's Day website with the movement of International Women's Day," she said.

She added that the movement risks being diluted by marketing-driven messaging.

"It is beginning to feel like the entire movement of International Women's Day is being watered down and turned into this kind of almost meaningless marketing, where the words and the themes don't actually seem to marry up with a genuine desire to advance women's rights."

Themes promoted by internationalwomensday.com have been adopted by several British organisations, including Sainsbury's, Barclays, the University of Warwick and UCL's School of Management. Some institutions have even cited them as though they were the official themes.

Responding to the criticism, the site's owners said that no single group owns International Women's Day and that their platform is "one of many organisations that mark the day globally." The website is operated by a company owned by marketing executive Glenda Slingsby, and its description of its relationship with the UN-recognised day has been described as vague.

Over the years, the site has partnered with several high-profile corporations, including the London Eye, MetLife, BP and Ernst & Young. It also sells merchandise and provides downloadable materials such as purple flag templates intended for promotional activities.

Mo Kanjilal, a Brighton-based founder of a diversity, equity and inclusion training company who also signed the letter, said the website's messaging reduces the seriousness of the day.

"The theme they announce is always quite corporate," she said. "Three words, kind of vacuous, making fun – in a way – of International Women's Day. You strike a pose or do a selfie and hug yourself."

She said this year's theme, "Give to Gain," was particularly frustrating given the ongoing global challenges facing women.

"We had girls killed in Iran, girls in Afghanistan that can't go to school. In this country, six years since the death and murder of Sarah Everard, the fight for women's rights is serious – 74,000 women a year lose their jobs through maternity discrimination. Asking us to pose and say 'Give to Gain' is not going to help with any of that," she said.

Batt said the open letter aims to push the website to be more transparent about how it operates and where its revenue goes.

"Where is all that money going? Is any of it going to causes that are for women, for women's advancement, for women's rights?" she asked. "I think these are things that need to be made more transparent."