To the grifters trying to squeeze some profit out of International Women’s Day – you are part of the problem

Feminism with empty slogans isn’t empowerment, it’s capitalism in a wig

The first time I celebrated International Women’s Day I was in my second year of university. My flatmates and I went out to a fancy restaurant which had a special “women’s deal” with unlimited cake and prosecco. After, we returned home to belt out some Destiny’s Child tunes, dance around the living room and swig wine. It was a great time had by all.

But now looking back, I wonder: did that company have good maternity schemes for their staff? Did they offer flexible working for women struggling with childcare? Did female staff with debilitating periods get their days off? And when their staff experienced sexism from customers, did they take a zero tolerance approach?

Or was that afternoon tea deal just a classic bit of femvertising?

There is so much hypocrisy in the advertising world. Businesses are now marketing in a time where more consumers expect brands to take a stand on ethical and cultural issues, and brands want to re-position themselves to be seen championing whatever the “latest hot trend” is. However, too often a brand’s message contradicts how their own business operates day to day - whether it’s how they deal with incidents of sexism in the office to the gender pay gap.

It seems, when it’s convenient, a lot of companies pop their feminist hat on and profit from these ideals while embodying the very opposite. They exploit women as they preach about equality. It makes a mockery out of what so many people are fighting to achieve, cheapens feminist campaigns and masks real problems. Those businesses are part of the very problem.

International Women’s Day is a worldwide event that celebrates women’s achievements and calls for gender equality. So if brands really want to empower women, they should take care of their employees’ mental health when it comes to taboo subjects like abortion; encourage mornings off for smear appointments, invest in paid leave for domestic violence victims and create a cracking maternity scheme that doesn’t just empower women, but empowers families.

Many of these brands who sell us International Women’s Day merchandise are not supporting women; they’re piggy-backing on morality to sell us badly punned mugs. Sloganeering feminism isn’t empowerment, it’s capitalism in a wig.

As a journalist, I have received countless press releases about normal household products - shampoo, stationary, bread, even tupperware containers - telling me how their products “empower women”. I’m not sure I’ve ever made a round of toast and felt empowered, nor have I been oppressed by a particular type of tupperware box.

We want decent maternity leave and black and white information about company policy and job openings, instead of them being tucked away somewhere, making us feel awkward to ask about it in interviews.

What else do we want? Creches at work would be good. Many self-employed women work in co-working spaces, and yet, despite being multipurpose spaces that are supposed to take care of your wellbeing, they fail to have places where we can leave our children. I’ve visited co-working spaces with saunas and dance studios, so I’m pretty sure featuring a creche in their building shouldn’t be too much of a financial ordeal for those companies.

So if you’re a company asking: should my brand use international women’s day as a news hook or post some “empowering” quotes up on your social media? Ask yourself have you been doing anything to genuinely press for progress?

One person recently told me she was blocked by a local pub because she questioned whether their staff got equal pay and protection from harassment by customers. The irony? They were advertising a champagne deal for IWD.

And just this month, it emerged that “Girl Power” charity t-shirts, sold in the UK, were made at an exploitative Bangladeshi factory, where more than 100 impoverished workers claim to have been sacked after striking in protest at their low wages.

The £28 garments were being sold on a site which claims to be “all about inspiring and empowering girls”, with £10 from each T-shirt donated to a charity that supplies digital books to poverty-stricken children in Africa. Television presenter Holly Willoughby recently re-posted a 2017 picture of her and Spice Girl Emma Bunton wearing the T-shirts.

It was established that the garments were made by Bangladeshi firm Dird Composite Textiles, where some workers earn as little as 42p an hour and complain of harassment. In one case a female employee was beaten on orders of the management and threatened with murder.

It makes me strongly question the validity and morality of these companies. They are either hypocrites or they only see empowerment as a western luxury. Either way, I’m left with a bad taste in my mouth.

No one needs the novelty. We don’t need the sassy t-shirt. We’ve already got the t-shirt. We’ve all seen it, been through it, and are painfully aware of the problems we face.

We want real social transformation, not just a consumerism circus. I can’t “celebrate” another International Women’s Day. But I will, however, celebrate genuine change.