Today is the 8th of March: the International Women's Day.
The social networks are filled with messages about women, some more inspiring that the others. I enjoyed reading the supporting messages posted by both women and men. This made me reflect on the first events in Luxembourg celebrating the international women's day that I could remember of ...
I grew up in Romania. There, the international women's day used to be a very happy celebration day, with men and women alike offering each other flowers or other small attentions, e.g. chocolate, cake etc. It was during the communism but even after the 1989 revolution, we still continued to celebrate women, without any debate about women's rights.
After I moved to Luxembourg, I noticed that celebrating the international women's day was not part of the local culture. This is why in 2007, my company, Languages.lu, partnered with BGL (at that time Fortis) and organized together one of the first celebrations of the International Women's Day in their offices located in Luxembourg-city (Monterey). It was a beautiful concert followed by a reception. You can find below some pictures from my personal archive.
2007 was also the year when I founded the Femmes Leaders du Luxembourg" association (FLL), in October. The following year, as chairwoman, I proposed to organize the International Women's Day in the framework of FLL, as a breakfast meeting on the theme "Women's Leadership", under the patronage and with the participation of Marie-Josée Jacobs, Minister for Equal Opportunities, Family and Integration. You can find below a few pictures from the seminar organized on the Occasion of the International Women's Day in 2008 at Le Royal hotel. Next to Minister Jacobs and to me, you might see some familiar faces who were invited as guests in our debate on women’s leadership: Colette Flesch, Corinne Cahen, Edmond Israel, Josée Friederes… It was a very interesting exchange because of the diversity of the profiles invited: some from education, some from finance and business, and also entrepreneurs, ambassadors and public officials.
Since 2008 to today, there are almost 15 years which passed. It saddens me that we still need to continue to discuss about women’s leadership and the inequalities between women and men which exist in almost all fields of activity and at most of the levels of the hierarchy, maybe with the exception with the interns or the entry level positions.
Whilst I appreciate that more and more companies and organizations talk about diversity and inclusion, it’s clear that not enough changes happened, and today we still cannot guarantee a better balance between the rights and opportunities offered to women compared to men. In this context, focusing the International Women’s Day on women’s rights seems the right thing, even if we might be treated by some (both men and women) as feminists, provocative or too demanding.
This is why this year I have chosen to mark the day with the publication of an educational game entitled “Wie sinn ech - Inspiring Wo-Men”, which is dedicated to 55 inspiring women, 25 from Luxembourg and 30 from the rest of world.
To give you some taste of it, below is featured one of the most inspiring women from Luxembourg and the cards in EN, LU and FR which are dedicated to her. I will not spoil your pleasure of discovering her impressive and inspiring journey.
I wish that learning about these women role models, honouring and celebrating them could inspire more girls and women into believing that anything is possible, if they put their mind to it. Thanks to them, women can go to university without dressing up as a man, can get a PhD, can become scientists, lawyers or entrepreneurs, can do public speeches and talk freely against war and against being controlled. But this is unfortunately still not true for all women. We need to continue to demand gender equality. Quotas could definitely help achieve that much quicker, we saw it already being successfully implemented in other countries. Why not also in Luxembourg, where there are currently only 24% of women in the local councils and where 88% of mayors are men? Definitely still a lot of work to be done.
Happy international women’s day!
Clara Moraru,
Founder of Luxembourg’s main women organizations: Fédération des Femmes Cheffes d’Entreprises de Luxembourg (FFCEL), Inspiring Wo-Men, Femmes Leaders du Luxembourg
