President's Message - Special Edition
to Honor International Women's Day - March 8th

This month's message brought to you by your Chapter Communications Portfolio

Did You Know? International Women's Day is annually held on March 8 to celebrate women's achievements throughout history and across nations. It is also known as the 'United Nations (UN) Day for Women's Rights and International Peace'. This year's theme is, "Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world", and "celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic". (1)

Are You Aware? More women than men have been impacted with job loss during this pandemic. "The report, COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects (2), from McKinsey Global Institute, estimates that women make up almost two-fifths of the global labour force but have suffered more than half of total job losses from the crisis, that's left them 1.8 times more vulnerable to the pandemic's impact than men". (3) Added to this violence against women and girls has increased and intensified as shown by "emerging data and reports from those on the front lines". (4)

What Can You Do? Educate yourself about what you can do to make a change for the women in your world! IIBA® is celebrating women in Business Analysis by hosting a panel webinar with women of influence on International Women's day. (5)

Is There a 'Woman of Choice' in Your Life? My life is full of wonderful women who encourage me, love me, and befriend me. For this I am truly grateful, although I probably don't tell them how grateful and how much I appreciate them often enough! My # 1 'woman of choice' though, would be my mother. Not only did she raise 8 children during extremely difficult financial hardship but she continued to learn and grow. In her 50's she went to night school to take a Business Administration course which included classes in typing, bookkeeping and accounting. This despite having only received a grade 8 education as schooling beyond grade 8 was seen as not needed for girls, especially not as they were needed to help with the household chores and child rearing responsibilities on the farm. She also held various jobs in order to help meet the financial needs of our family some of which include waitressing, farm labourer and door to door salesperson. She was an amazing role model for me!

Celebrate the 'Woman of Choice' in Your Life! I encourage you to consider how many women have touched your life up to now and who do so on a daily basis. Reach out and tell them that they're appreciated! They need to hear it more than ever this year!

 Lavina Wiebe,
Communications Coordinator

Footnotes:
(1)  United Nations. (2021, March) International Women's Day 8 March. [Webpage]. https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day
(2)  McKinsey Global Institute. (2020, July 15) COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects by Anu Madgavkar, Olivia White, Mekala Kirshnan, Deepa Mahanjan, and Xavier Azcue. [Article]. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/covid-19-and-gender-equality-countering-the-regressive-effects#
(3)  World Economic Forum. (2020, September 04). COVID-19 has worsened gender inequality. These charts show what we can do about it by Johhny Wood. [Article]. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/covid-19-gender-inequality-jobs-economy/
(4)  Un Women. (2021, March) The Shadow Pandemic: Violence against women during COVID-19 [Webpage]. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid-19-response/violence-against-women-during-covid-19
(5)  International Institute of Business Analysis™ (2021, March 8) Celebrating Women in Business Analysis | Public Webinar. [Webpage]. https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4324783165735149581