7 March 2024

In 2024, Women’s Health In the North will be proudly promoting the International Women’s Day (IWD) theme ‘Count Her In: Accelerating Gender Equality through Economic Empowerment’.

#CountHerIn highlights that women’s economic empowerment is central to realising women’s rights and gender equality. For more information about the 2024 theme see UN Women’s web page here.

The theme also aligns with WHIN’s Economic Equality work. Our financial capability program, ‘Let’s Talk Money’ has been positively impacting the lives of more than 1,600 multicultural women and their families in our region since 2017. We are expanding the program this year to drive economic gender equity and create pathways to greater economic inclusion for women and gender-diverse people across the whole of Victoria. Look out for our monthly e-News and social media pages for progress on this exciting work.

WHIN is again adopting and aligning our IWD theme with two credible, international organisations: UN Women Australia and International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA). Each organisation has a long history of advocating for women’s rights and gender equality internationally with the message ‘women’s rights are human rights’.

IWD was first borne out of labour movements for women’s rights at the turn of the 20th century in North America and across Europe. The social justice movement was grassroots until 1975, International Women’s Year, when the United Nations adopted IWD on March 8 when it is still held. The IWD movement has since grown in reach and visibility globally to make IWD a central point for action to build support for women’s rights and their full participation in the economy, politics, community and in everyday life.

A campaign by More Voices, More Representation highlights that 7 out of 10 women and gender-diverse people in Australia do not feel represented on IWD. This reinforces the need to align with the above international organisations.

We know that other IWD themes are promoted each year, including one by a corporate entity that has gained huge influence using search engine optimisation. There is no transparency about this organisation/site i.e. information about its origins, funding or whether it has a Board. In this context, WHIN chooses to support the work of the international women’s organisations who work to promote the rights of women across the world on IWD – and throughout the year.