It is that time of the year when corporations realize that they have to acknowledge that women exist in the workforce (sigh). HR goes into overdrive and comes up with innovative ways to irritate all the women in their organization in one go.
Here are 5 REAL (I have modified some details like names to avoid any issues) things that organizations have done on Women's Day:
1 - Let us send women a "How to Manage Money as a Woman" book to be condescending to women on a day we're supposed to celebrate them.
We all know women are terrible with money. They end up spending on luxuries such as food, household essentials, utilities and have no concept of budgeting.
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Here's how I imagined the meeting for this went:
Male 1: So, er International Women's Day is tomorrow, and er we have to do something.
Male 2: eh?
Sleeping Male 3: I agree
Male 4: What do all women want?
All males, including the sleeping ones, laugh.
Male 1: Books are cheap; women love books. Let us give them a book to understand how to invest when you're paid lesser than your male counterparts. I'm sure they'll appreciate that.
2 - Boring Women's Speeches: Let us give our employees, who work for 12 odd hours, more time pressure by MAKING them spend 2 more hours listening to fifty-year-old women who climbed Mt. Kiliminjaro. I don't know how that will help me send the expense report for warehouse 1, but sure.
3- A single rose: Some corporates truly run out of ideas and just go with an all-time classic, one single rose. Er, thanks, but what do I do with it? Put it in my hair after making a Frieda Kahlo braid, put it in the middle of my tax receipts, or take it home and put it in a vase where it just emphasizes the starkness of my loneliness?
4- Free lunch: The International Labor Organization says that at the current rate of change around the world, it would take 475 years for men and women to have the same number of top-level managerial and administrative jobs.
Meanwhile, let us try to bridge the gap with a free lunch for ladies.
5 - Make them study tech: Lack of women in tech is a huge issue. Lesser women take up tech as compared to other professions. It is a matter of choice. Everyone, men or women should play to their strengths.
But, on this International Women's Day, let us force women to learn coding. Making it mandatory is the ultimate gift.
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