Since 1911, annually on March 8th, the International Women’s Day (IWD) is marked to celebrate globally the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, raise awareness about women’s equality and fundraise for female-focused charities. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality.
According to the World Economic Forum, sadly none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor likely will many of our children. Gender parity will not be attained for almost a century.
The focus of IWD in 2021 is about choice, the choice of challenging our thoughts and actions every day with the aim of creating, collectively, an inclusive world, a better world for all of us.
From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.
Entrepreneurship is an important driver of economic growth and it provides economic opportunities everywhere.
Despite women entrepreneurs are to make a greater impact across economies, only 34.4 % of the European Union (EU) self-employed and 30 % of start-up entrepreneurs are women. In order to increase women´s participation in economy and entrepreneurship, special policy attention is needed on matters including but not limited to education, and non-discrimination, in areas such as access to finance and property rights.The OECD Recommendation on Gender Equality calls on governments to reduce the gender gap in entrepreneurship activity and support women entrepreneurs in confronting issues and strengthening the necessary skills to their success. Women´s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking, including the economic, as well as to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over financial services are some of the targets established by the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.
The session, which will take place on 25th November from 3pm to 5pm London time, aims at sharing businesswomen knowledge, supporting women´s entrepreneurs and promoting networking within the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WEDO) global movement.
Businesswomen and women´s entrepreneurs invited to the online discussion will share experiences, views and testimonials as well as will address the following questions as well as other raised during the session:
What led you to follow your own project?
Why do you think there is still such a big difference in the gender of entrepreneurs?
What were the main difficulties you have faced as entrepreneur, as women entrepreneur? If you have come across some.
What are the major challenges that women face in micro and medium business?;
What are the business skills all women entrepreneurs need to develop to achieve success?;
Share a tip about entrepreneurship
Best business models;
The role of cooperation and networking in business development.
In this session we will celebrate women´s achievements while speaking out about inequality and common challenges.
With these purposes, relevant women from economic, social, and political fields will join the session and share with us their testimonials of success. In between, a discussion among the challenges we keep confronting as a unequal society will take place.
You are most welcome to join and participate in this amazing celebration.
In order to conduct the discussion and provide to participants with detailed information about the purpose of the debate and the issues we would like to raise during the discussion, please download the Concept Paper and the programme.
From the local to the global level, women´s leadership and participation in society are restricted. Women are underrepresented at the political and economic level, as well as leading positions, whether in elected office, the civil service, the private sector or the Academia. This occurs despite their proven abilities as leaders and agents of change, and their right to participate equally in democratic governance. Women face several obstacles to participating in public life. Structural barriers through discriminatory laws and institutions still limit women´s options to run for office. Capacity gaps mean women are less likely than men to have the education, contacts and resources needed to become effective leaders. As the 2011 UN General Assembly resolution on women´s political participation notes, “Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, lack of access to health care and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women”. Individual women have overcome these obstacles with great acclaim, and often to the benefit of society at large. But for women as a whole, the playing field needs to be level, opening opportunities for all[1].
The first session of this cycle will be focused on the challenges we confront as society in fighting violence against women with the objective of promoting good practices, as well as disseminate testimonials of women.
Dialogue Cafe is facilitating dialogue between people from all walks of life, across the world, to address social issues ranging from youth literacy to urban development.
Hi Ashique,
Thank you for your interest!
Our cycle is finalised but more sessions on crafts will take place at Dialogue Cafe. For instance you can visit our profil in vimeo and attend online some sessions recorded. https://vimeo.com/dcafe
Otherwise we plan to publish a book with the recommendations and findings of our discussions on crafts. Keep posted!
Thanks again for your interest
DC team daliasendra on 2019.07.29
