Yes, I am a #GlobalFeminist – for the sake of Humankind

Safia Minney writes: How many women are in the management team? How do you address women’s rights and inequality? Why are women in the lowest paid roles? What do they need to get into the higher paid roles?

How do we stop undermining women so they can be trained alongside men? What are the barriers to financial literacy? What are the child care and schooling facilities here? What about breastfeeding mums, how can they continue to work and breastfeed? How does a woman deal with menstruation here? How is a Workers’ and Women’s committee resourced and how are their voices reflected in management practice and future planning? What are the key barriers to the advancement of women in your community? Who are their role models?…

These are some of the questions I would ask as gender equality and Environmental sustainability have always been the key motivators in helping me decide which new suppliers People Tree work with.

We would then partner to build capacity to deliver high social impact and low environmental impact.

This predates the Sustainable Development Goals, I would interpret the Millennial Development Goals as though I were running a multinational corporation. Why not? If People Tree could do it, what was stopping other businesses doing it? Good intention and lofty goals are never a substitute for action and making Equality & Sustainability core to your business.

The principals of Fair Trade, through the World Fair Trade Organisation, guarantee equality and we worked hard to bring that to reality whilst challenging chauvinist cultural norms. I met hundreds of women with great courage and energy who would stand up for themselves and each other. They would hold management, too often, dominated by men, accountable. They would help start programs of awareness on domestic violence and health and welfare. Women would discover their voice helped improving their children’s future and make their communities more supportive of women.
That’s why I dedicated my life to Fair Trade and it’s the unfair trade and women trapped in modern slavery that inspired me to write Slave to Fashion.

This IWD, I’m reminded of the progress women have made and the attention that the ‘me-to’ movement has drawn to women’s plight in the global south. The women who make our clothes, shoes, food and all we consume each day deserve a living wage and freedom of association so that their rights are recognised and they can provide for their families and earn a living wage.

We need to become their voice and put pressure on businesses and governments to reform our out of date trading and financial systems to reflect human rights and sustainability. And as we draw closer to the point of no return with global warming and climate change we start to see the true cost of a world run mostly by men stuck in the old paradigm of corporate interests at any cost.

We need women – and teens – to have an equal voice to transform our dysfunctional capitalist system and put us on the road to Sustainability together with ‘woke’ men!

Illustration by ALICIA REGUERA @aliciareguera for Safia Minney
#SheDeserves #BalanceForBetter #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2019
#climatestrike #klimatstrejk #FridaysForFuture

#mentoring #event #coaching #debate #womensupportwomen #w4w #networking #inspo #womeninleadership #genderparity #genderequality #everybodysbusiness #letstalk #equality #diversity #changethestory #herstory #equalityforeveryone
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