My workplaces have been quite hyper-aware of International Women’s Day (IWD) in recent years. For my current workplace, they hosted a modest morning tea last year to honour women in tech, complete with cupcakes (a symbolic movement which, done generally, was promptly lambasted on social media as an empty gesture).
This year we’re hosting a morning tea again, and at the same time launching a scholarship to sponsor some young enterprising woman who’d like to launch a career in tech via a partnership with an organisation called Code Like a Girl.
In a tech workplace, it appears, the ultimate summit and pinnacle of your empowerment as a member of the fairer sex is the ability to launch a cushy, high-paying, white-collar career in software development.
It has been a curiosity to me that society would narrow female empowerment down to the capitalist standard of ‘have a great, well-paying career’. Because we’re not honouring women who are genuinely interested in all fields of STEM—a lot of women—people, in general—pick up software development and tech-adjacent careers amidst a different, established career path simply because it’s considered better in terms of salary, benefits, and work environment.
Workplaces in general tend to select and honour women who are working mothers, female CEOs, or the traditional triumvirate of ’empowered’ careers—doctors, lawyers, engineers. Even back in the Philippines, if you wanted a stock image of an empowered woman, then she must be wearing either a blazer, a lab coat, or a hard hat.
Simply put, you’re only empowered if you have a good career in a traditionally male-dominated industry. It doesn’t matter if you’ve found fulfilment elsewhere, or if you’ve self-actualised in all other aspects of your life. Everyone else, especially—heaven forbid—women who choose to be primary caregivers, can go f–k themselves.
So, for IWD, here’s a collection of essays and videos that have resonated with me in terms of what it means to be a woman—and the modern struggles, stereotypes, and challenges we surmount:
Home and mental load
- You should’ve asked | Emma (emmaclit.com)
- She Divorced Me Because I Left Dishes by the Sink – Matthew Fray
Work and career
- PSA from a woman in STEM in a Male dominated field : femalefashionadvice (reddit.com)
- Being Glue — No Idea Blog
- Choosing To Be A Stay At Home Mom || Mayim Bialik (YouTube video)
Identity and self-image
- You’re Right, I Didn’t Eat That – The New Inquiry
- ‘Cool Girl’ soliloquy from Gone Girl (YouTube video)
- Cinderella: Stop Blaming the Victim (YouTube video)