A look back at International Women's Day 2024
On Friday 8 March, GENDER.ED co-badged a series of events organised by IASH to celebrate International Women’s Day. These included a talk by Rosa Campbell with responses from two of our assistant directors, Wannes Dupont and Hemangini Gupta, a conversation between Isla Cowan and Jaspreet Kaur, a panel discussion chaired by Louise Welsh with panellists Nuala Watt, Amira Al Shanti, 江莘荑 / Xinyi Jiang, and Alice Tarbuck, and a lecture by Amina Shah.
The day began in Hope Park Square, home of IASH with a talk by GENDER.ED Postdoctoral Fellow Rosa Campbell. The talk was entitled The Stories We Tell about Women. Rosa began by discussing two stories being told about feminism today: the story from the far-right that feminism has gone too far and is oppressing men and the more powerful story from the left that critiques feminism as a movement that primarily focuses on a few, already privileged, women rather than representing the interests of all. It is a mistake, Rosa reminds us, to believe that there is equality in the oppression of women. Rosa then tells us a historical story that she has been uncovering through her research. In 1975, a group of Vietnamese women visited Australia for International Women’s Day. Rosa points out that while the priorities of Vietnamese and Australian women were different, making solidarity awkward at times, the story of their visit shows that solidarity has happened and is still possible. Conscious-raising and the idea of ‘speaking pains to recall pains’ are part of feminist traditions in Asia and were shared with the Australian women’s movement. The power of women’s testimonies and ability to find common ground speaks to us from history. Wannes and Hemangini gave thoughtful responses to Rosa’s work, emphasising ideas of finding ‘new patterns of relating across difference’ and admiring activists' ability to be productive despite (or even through) their confusion.
After lunch, it was time for two connected events in partnership with Scottish Pen. First, we joined Isla Cowan and Jaspreet Kaur in their conversation about Creating and Inclusion. The two authors posed questions that emanated warmth, creating a charitable space for each other. Responding to Isla, Jaspreet shared that poetry had been a lifeline for her and her desire to infuse her poetry with a sense of humour. With so many people struggling with mental health and a lack of support services available, Jaspreet emphasised the ability of art to be a starting point for people to open up about stigmatised topics. Jaspreet asked Isla about how the natural world can be a space of healing. Anna replied by speaking about how we must be conscious of our place in the natural world and linked this to the theatre, which is a space where everyone comes together and a collective is cultivated with the audience. Sustainable theatre, says Anna, must be a marriage of content and form. I found that a key theme that linked Jaspreet’s and Isla’s work was space; Jaspreet’s work, such as Brown Girl Like Me, seeks to create space for South Asian women whose stories often go unheard, and for Isla, green spaces are an important space of coming together and of art. Jaspreet’s poetry book for children, The Spaces in Between, aims to give children spaces of calm in their busy lives. Though theatre, such as Isla’s play She-Wolf, can provide necessary critiques of systems of oppression, Isla also talks about how theatre itself needs to give space to more marginalised peoples, highlighting that there is still work to be done.
Next, we heard readings from Nuala Watt, Amira Al Shanti, 江莘荑 / Xinyi Jiang, and Alice Tarbuck. Each reading felt incredibly relevant to the world today, touching on important topics from hexes as political activism and being a disabled parent to mother-daughter relationships and the occupation of Palestine. Louise Walsh then opened the discussion by asking how literature can help us progress. Amira spoke about how literature can be a call for change and the role of literature in shifting perspectives on Palestine. Alice answered by stating that ‘all acts of imagination facilitate change.’ Xinyi Jiang spoke about the importance of free speech in literature. Nuala expressed the hope that literature can change the world and that even the fact of someone saying ‘I am here’ can be world-changing. The author’s answers certainly filled the room with hope and emphasised the role of literature as a world-changing art form.
In the evening, Amina Shah gave the Edinburgh University International Women’s Day Lecture; the first since covid. It was incredible to see so many people turn up, and there was a real sense of occasion. Aminah’s lecture was, of course, mesmerising. Entitled 50 Ways and delivered in the form of a letter to her daughter, Amina spoke of the women who have inspired her and who, like the rings of a tree that show its journey, are a part of her rings. These women have shown her how many ways there are to live a life, including some particularly rebellious ways! Amina also spoke about where women’s rights are today and cited the stark fact that, at our current rate, it will take a further 300 years for women to be truly equal to men. In the face of this, Amina called on young women to ‘be emboldened by the stories of the women that have gone before’. As National Librarian and Chief Executive of the National Library of Scotland, Amina also spoke about what libraries mean to her and responded to questions in a similar vein. The speech was followed by a lively reception that marked the end of a day filled with so many powerful stories and so much hope for the future.
Author Bio
Amy Life is a fourth-year French and Philosophy student and an Undergraduate Communications Intern for GENDER.ED. She has previously been the president of Edinburgh University’s Feminist Society and is one of the founders of #MeToo Edinburgh University.