International Women’s Day – Listen, Learn and Celebrate
For over a century, March 8th has been marked annually as International Women’s Day.
It is a day meant for awareness, recognition, and celebration, as well as a call to action for accelerating women’s equality across the globe. It is a day for everyone to come together and appreciate how far we’ve come in the women’s rights movement while also acknowledging how far we still have to go.
Every year, InternationalWomensDay.com chooses a different theme for the big day. Past themes have included such inspirational taglines as #ChoosetoChallenge, #PressforProgress, and #BeBoldforChange. This year’s theme, #BreakTheBias, is equally motivating and helps inspire us to work collectively to provoke the world to take action towards building a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
This International Women’s Day, we at SaskGalleries wanted to raise awareness around why IWD is still so important by providing examples of the many issues that create this gender gap while also taking a moment to recognize and celebrate many of our members who already #BreakTheBias by succeeding in running their own successful galleries.
Why We Desperately Need IWD in 2022
It’s 2022. We can video chat with anyone in the world using a small device in our pocket. Billionaires across the globe are taking outings into outer space. And self-driving cars are right around the corner.
Our world looks a lot different now than it did when the first “Women’s Day” was held in 1909. Yet women still do not share the same rights, freedoms, or opportunities as men.
We have indeed made progress. But it’s also clear there’s a lot of work to be done. Men and women simply are not operating on a level playing field.
The following facts and figures provide examples that show not only that a gender gap exists, but that this gap remains a large one:
According to the United Nations Gender Social Norms Index, “about half of the world’s men and women feel that men make better political leaders, and over 40% feel that men make better business executives and that men have more right to a job when jobs are scarce. 28% think it is justified for a man to beat his wife.”
Runner’s World magazine states that 60% of women have been harassed while running, while an astonishing 25% of women experience sexual harassment on a run regularly.
UK book publisher, Pan Macmillan, lists examples of the many instances where gender discrimination is encoded into law, such as:
113 countries do not have laws to ensure equal pay for equal work among men and women.
104 countries make certain jobs off-limits for women.
29 countries restrict the hours women can work.
18 countries allow men to prohibit their wives from working.
17 countries limit when and how women can travel outside the home.
When it comes to business – even right here at home – women are far from being represented in equal numbers. Women comprise just 19.5% of the board members for Canada’s top 500 companies and hold an impossibly low 8.5% of the highest-paid positions in Canada’s top 100 listed companies, according to the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
And if we look at entrepreneurship statistics, we see the numbers are equally staggering.
The Disappointing Statistics of Women Entrepreneurship
There are more women than men in Canada. Yet, women-owned businesses account for just 15.6% of the small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada.
A big reason for this disparity is that female entrepreneurs across the globe face unique challenges in business. It’s more difficult for them to access funding, they face expectations of managing most domestic duties, and there is no “old boys club” for female entrepreneurs to reach out to and learn from. Because of these obstacles, fewer women take the leap into entrepreneurship and those who do face an uphill battle.
Some of the unique challenges women entrepreneurs face include:
Limited access to funding
A lack of funding or working capital is one of the main reasons businesses fail. Women-owned businesses, largely due to systemic barriers, are among the leading businesses that lack proper financial support. Women are underrepresented in decision-making roles and 61% of women stated current funding models do not fit their needs. Add in the fact that many women are denied loans simply because of gender biases, and we can see how big this problem is.
Balancing multiple responsibilities
Social expectations hold women accountable for the vast majority of domestic responsibilities. While employees and customers expect a committed leader and director, families expect a committed mother and wife. These demands can often pressure women into an either/or situation where they feel they must give up one to have the other. This is perhaps why women are more likely than men to discontinue their business for family or personal reasons.
Gender inequality/Unfavorable Business Environment
Women face stigma and discrimination as they work their way through the social and traditional constraints that restrict their access to, and participation in, the business and entrepreneurial ecosystem. This ecosystem reinforces bias as many of its decision-makers and influencers have deep-rooted biases against women.
These challenges are sobering.
But International Women’s Day need not be all doom and gloom. We mustn’t forget that celebration is also a key component of IWD.
SaskGalleries Members: How Are Women-Owned Galleries #BreakTheBias
It has been estimated that 2/3 of art galleries worldwide are owned by males. This leaves women to own a mere 33% of the world’s 19,000 galleries. However, when it comes to SaskGalleries’ members, these numbers are reversed - an incredible 13 of our 19 member galleries across the province are women-owned small businesses.
These entrepreneurial women not only #BreakTheBias of female-owned galleries but also #BreakTheBias of female entrepreneurs in general. While just 15.6% of small and medium-sized businesses in Canada are female-owned, nearly 70% of our member galleries are owned by women. This is a testament to the type of strong, independent, industrious women we have in our province.
These gallery owners have overcome all the aforementioned challenges and obstacles to pave their own way. These entrepreneurs overcame the odds and followed their passion, helping to provide beautiful, original pieces of art to everyone across our great province. These gallerists also promote the strong, independent, industrious women artists in Saskatchewan as you have seen in our socials all week.
While we have the utmost respect for all our member galleries and the talent, knowledge, and work ethic of every gallery owner, we wanted to recognize the following women-owned and operated galleries on International Women’s Day:
Assiniboia Gallery (Mary Weimer with partner, Jeremy Weimer)
Collector’s Choice Art Gallery (Anne Hardy)
Nouveau Gallery (Meagan Perreault)
Slate Fine Art Gallery (Gina Fafard)
The Hand Wave Gallery (June Jacobs)
Traditions Hand Craft Gallery (Kathleen Coleclough, with partner Jeff Coleclough)
And Art Gallery (Gail Prpick)
Dandelion Art Framing & Gallery (Kathryn Dueck)
Dervilia art + design (Adele Tosh)
Grasslands Gallery Online (Laureen Marchand)
Hansen Ross House (Connie Chaplin)
Little Manitou Art Gallery (Sarah McKen, with partner Clayton Cave)
Yvette Moore Gallery (Yvette Moore)
International Women’s Day 2022
It’s clear that, even in our futuristic world of high-tech gadgets and space travel, a gender gap exists.
From healthcare to education to business, we need to see change. For that change to happen, though, we must all take the time to recognize the many issues that create and enable this disparity between men and women.
International Women’s Day plays a pivotal role in keeping the debate alive and the issues front and centre.
This International Women’s Day, let’s all do our part to listen and learn while we also take a moment to celebrate the many successes of women across the globe.
Article Sources:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-women-dealers-represent-women-artists-crunched-numbers
https://www.magnusresch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GlobalArtGalleryReport2016byMagnusResch.pdf
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/blog/cs/wob
https://wekh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/WEKH_State_of_Womens_Entrepreneurship_in_Canada_2021.pdf
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/About
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/international-womens-day
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000501
https://www.hdr.undp.org/en/content/2020-gender-social-norms-index-gsni
https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/a36278390/reclaim-the-run/