Innocean, on behalf of gender equality organisation’s Fck the Cupcakes (FTC), has issued an Invi-TATE-ion to men to show up, lean in and listen on March 8, International Women’s Day.
The social media video kicked off Fck The Cupcakes’ Show up for Equality platform by editing the misogynistic “manosphere” influencer’s words into an inclusive message.
“The responses we received over the past week after posting the video on selected social media channels was incredible. Overnight our inboxes and feeds were filled with messages from both women and men telling us how much they loved it,” stated FTC founder and Innocean chief executive officer, Jasmin Bedir.
With one week to go until IWD, the next stage is an out-of-home, digital and social campaign called Unsolicited Invites that asks Australians to actively invite men to attend IWD events.
In addition, the campaign hub, ShowupforIWD.com.au, contains all the information to get Australia’s good guys inspired into action. There is even a brutally honest FAQ section and other helpful links for those that are still a bit anxious about attending.
Wez Hawes, executive creative director at Innocean, commented, “We needed a way to directly tell men – in no uncertain terms – that they are invited to any event being put on by their organisation this IWD. The not-so- subtle dick-pic inspired Unsolicited Invites and Invi-Tate-ion are just some of the many ways we’re telling men that they are welcome and that this day is for them too.”
According to a World Economic Forum study, women are two times as likely to work on a DE&I initiative as men, but it rarely gets acknowledged in performance reviews and is mostly taken for granted. The vast majority of men still aren’t actively involved in equality initiatives. International Women’s Day is seen as a “women’s event”, from which men are largely detached.
Bedir added, “In the absence of official data, we estimate that male attendance is no higher than 5-10% for actual events, and after an AI analysis of IWD posts or mentions of IWD on LinkedIn, only 17% come from men. On top of it all it’s largely on women to organise the day.”
Hawes added, “Anecdotally, what we hear most often is that men aren’t showing up because they don’t think International Women’s Day is meant for them. Some think they wouldn’t be welcome, others are too scared to get involved, but the majority of men we talk to have never even considered attending an event and will happily steal a cupcake, before sloping off back to their desks. I used to do this, don’t worry! The truth is, we need men to be engaged otherwise we will never move the needle on gender equality.”
