This week, women around the globe celebrated International Women’s Day – a date that has been marked since the early 1900s when women joined forces to campaign against gender oppression and inequality. The day has evolved massively, as have the causes that we’ve barracked for.
Since its inception, in many countries, we’ve gained the right to drive, the right to vote, to run for parliament. But despite barracking for change for more than 100 years (at least) gender inequality still exists in varied extremes throughout the world. This is prevalent in all industries, but especially the fashion industry, where it’s believed that about 80% of the world’s garment workers are women, and only 2% of all garment workers are paid a living wage.
On a broader scale, according to UN Women:
- Nearly 60% of women around the world work in the informal economy, earning less, saving less, and are at greater risk of falling into poverty.
- Women earn 23% less than men globally.
- Women occupy only 24% of parliamentary seats worldwide.
- Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change – around 21.5 million people worldwide are displaced every year by climate change-related events, of these, 80% are women.
But worse than anything, women are most likely to be killed by their partner or ex partner in their home.
For Brisbane-based, Australian made, brand dk active, jumping on the IWD train was a no brainer. But this year, the brand looked at how they could make a genuine impact outside of their operations. When it came to choosing an organisation to support for IWD, dk active founder Danielle Kay says they were driven by helping women achieve a safer future.
“dk active are proud supporters of Women’s Legal Services QLD and this year we made a donation on behalf of our dk active community which helps 30,000 women and their children with free legal and social work support services,” she says.
Women’s Legal Services (WLS) QLD is a for-purpose organisation providing free legal advice and other key supporting services accessed through a variety of pathways. Fundraising is vital for their operations and the money raised supports the organisation to continue to provide free legal advice and social work support to assist women and their children who have been impacted by domestic and family violence.
To share the love among the brand’s community and help raise awareness for the WLS cause, dk active also sent out some fun treats to their affiliate network, including Britt’s List!
“One of the themes for IWD this year was #BreakTheBias – which I think is amazing. Gender equality is something we all need to work towards – both female and males included,” Danielle says.
“As women, we do not need to settle for any less than being equal, and it is shocking that we even must ask for that. But this theme is not only about self-identifying women but breaking all stigmas against bias of any stereotypes and discrimination. I love celebrating individuality – that is what the dk active brand is all about. So, this theme really resonates with me and the rest of our team.”
The brand sent out smashable cakes to represent breaking the bias. I can personally say they were surprising hard to break – perhaps a metaphor for the work that lies ahead. Check out some of the action over on the dk active socials here.
