This year, the International Women’s Day platform is launching a sophisticated campaign concept, if not more sophisticated than other 8M campaigns: #EmbraceEquity.

The new campaign revolves around equity, which differs from the concept of equality. And it is crucial to understand the difference between the two. Because having equal opportunities, per se, does not reduce the gender gap.

Equality means that we treat everyone equally: each person or group of people receives the same resources and opportunities. Let’s give an example: let’s give the same book to a sighted and a blind student. The situation is an equal opportunity, but it is not equal. Equity is about taking into account personal differences and being able to provide the resources to eliminate or minimise disadvantages, and thus to give the same opportunities from a starting point with equal advantages. In our example above, acting equitably would be giving the blind student a Braille book so that he/she has the same opportunities as the sighted student.

Equity means that we provide resources and opportunities tailored to the specific needs or circumstances of that person or group; so that we can achieve an equal outcome. This year’s campaign wants us to learn the concept of equity, and this will enable us to demand a more inclusive society. True inclusion requires equitable actions.

132 years to close the gender gap

Equality is absolutely necessary to establish the first rules of the “game”, although equity is essential to make progress in the gender gap between men and women. It is interesting to review the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report for 2022, where this large gap between men and women is observed, a large gap because it is estimated that it could take 132 years to close this gap.

According to the report, and as can be seen in the graph, Spain is in 17th place and Iceland is the country that leads the ranking of countries with the greatest equality and equity between men and women.

100 years of inequality

Ours, this gender inequality, seems to be going on for a long time. So let’s keep on fighting, let’s keep on promoting the IWD campaigns, let’s keep on repeating them, and let’s keep on going viral. Everyone should celebrate it or claim it in their own way so that we don’t get 100 years of inequality.

N.B. “Compañera, dame, dame tira”

Asturias celebrates the IWD with its own theme: “Compañera, dame tira”. A mining expression, the very essence of solidarity and Asturianness. They have composed their own anthem, which they will take to the streets on IWD: “Dende les Cuenques mineres, la capital y occidente, de la costa y del oriente, equí tamos les muyeres”.

The soundtrack of the article

“Embraceable You”. A jazz standard song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was written in 1928 for an unpublished operetta named East Is West. It was published in 1930 and included in that year’s Broadway musical Girl Crazy, performed by Ginger Rogers in a song and dance routine choreographed by Fred Astaire. Billie Holiday‘s 1944 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005.

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