March is Women's History Month, and it's a great time for organizations to reflect on the ways in which we can better support women empowerment movements through our communication strategy. There are many digital communication and social media tools that can help organizations reach their target audience and empower women around the world. In this blog post, we will explore why Women's History Month is important, discuss how companies can use digital communication to promote women's empowerment, and highlight some of the best social media hashtags for audience engagement.
From the Women's Empowerment Principles:
"Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world."
- Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-
Why do Organizations need to Pay Attention to Women's History Month?
Women's History Month is important because it helps us to celebrate the accomplishments of women throughout history. It also provides an opportunity for organizations to highlight the work they are doing to work toward gender equity and correct historical inaccuracies. Women are important for your organization's outreach in all aspects of public health as 77% of Mothers report that they usually take their children to doctor’s appointments, compared to 24% of Fathers who report responsibility for this and regardless of marital or child status 94% of women make healthcare decisions for themselves and 59% make healthcare decisions for others. This month healthcare organizations can support women through empowering informed health decisions and addressing health disparities.
In order to effectively promote women's empowerment through digital communication, companies need to create content that inspires and educates their target audience. This can be done by sharing stories of women who have overcome adversity, highlighting the work that women are doing in their field, or providing tips and advice on best practices and resources. There are a number of social media tools that can be used to promote women's empowerment. Some of the most popular platforms for this type of content include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
5 Hashtags Your Organization Needs to Use after #InternationalWomensDay
So how can you make sure your organization's communications reflect these values and support women empowerment?
Here are five hashtags to get you started:
Observed in March, (October in Canada). The National Women’s History Alliance picks a yearly theme for Women's History Month. The 2022 theme is "Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope." This theme is ideal for health-based communications and organizations. The goal is to be a "tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history."
Women’s leadership is vital to women's empowerment. Our organizations must lead by example by representing equitable access to senior positions and leadership roles. Share a bit about your company ethos and the diverse women that make up your leadership using this hashtag. You can tie in women's history by encompassing past leaders and trailblazers.
She Inspires Me launched as part of Twitter's work to promote inclusion and diversity as fundamental tenets of their company. They used the opportunity to empower this campaign with their ambition to create content that inspires. She Inspires Me is a great hashtag to highlight trailblazers in your organization. Watch i original video created at Cannes Lions from Twitter with women leaders for inspiration.
He for She, is a movement represented in solidarity and the union of women and men working together for the advancement of gender equality started by the United Nations. HeForShe is a global effort that seeks to involve men and boys in achieving equality by taking action against negative gender stereotypes and behaviors. HeForShe initiative has registered over 2.1 million online commitments worldwide.
The Generation Equality campaign by UN Women demands equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end to sexual harassment and all forms of violence against women and girls, health-care services that respond to their needs, and their equal participation in political life and decision-making in all areas of life. At the Fourth World Conference on Women with the agenda for the human rights of girls and women across the globe, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995 was legitimized by 189 countries.
This is a great choice for international reach and support! Selfie With Daughter was originally an Indian social media campaign that was launched with an aim to promote the feeling of pride for being the parent of a girl child and hence improving the child sex ratio in the country. The campaign asked parents to post selfies with their daughters. It has since been continually used to support parent-child relationship building, healthy home communication, and family support.
These hashtags will help you to connect with other organizations that are passionate about gender equality, women's empowerment, and are working toward the same goals. Show your commitment to these issues and help to raise awareness about the importance of including women in your organizational communications.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this blog post has been helpful in highlighting the importance of Women's History Month and digital communication strategies for promoting women's empowerment.
What are some other ways that companies can promote women's empowerment through digital communication? Share your thoughts and follow @PublicHealthGoals for more solutions.