Today 8 March is International Women’s Day. It is a day for focussing on women of all ages, in every country in the world, all doing whatever they can to raise families, run businesses big and small or even in Scotland’s case for another month, running the country’s government.
It is, for me at least, more than a little troubling that we still have to have a special day to focus on women. Why should we? There are women in all manner of jobs who we all meet every day, but it appears that there are still barriers to being a woman in 2023 who wants both parity and equality with men – at least for some women, and in some places.
So what to do? You could start by attending some International Women’s Day events and listening to the experiences of others.
Infrasisters bike ride
The group campaigns “for night time infrastructure that is safe and comfortable for women and girls”.
It is not always easy to choose a path which is not well lit or where there do not seem to be many people.
Infrasisters call on The Cit of Edinburgh Council to follow Transport Scotland’s updated Cycling by Design guidance and:
* prioritise safe and comfortable on-road cycle infrastructure, protected from traffic or off-carriageway, on well-lit direct routes
* provide well-signed routes which are permeable and always have away out, not fenced/walled on both sides, and with good connections to other streets
* provide routes which use natural surveillance where possible, for example streets with high footfall
Look out for them in the city centre tonight with bikes lit up with strings of lights. And yes they will be having fun.
Elsie Inglis
The competition to select an artist to create a statue of Dr Elsie Maud Inglis came to an abrupt stop last year. The trustees had set out a process by which the artist would submit ideas and then be selected by judges after a shortlist was drawn up.
This was halted by an announcement from the Trustees that they had reconsidered, and had decided to select Sandy Stoddart, the King’s Sculptor, to create the statue. The selection process was halted, leaving some artists who wanted to submit their entries and ideas, both angry and disappointed.
There was fundraising for the statue by the charity A Statue for Elsie Inglis, including a full week of events in March 2022, raising around £50,000 in the first place and approximately £11,000 on Crowdfunder. The trustees believed that more funds of around £30-40,000 would be required to pay for the statue. All funds are held by OneCityTrust, the Lord Provost’s charity, but we do not know exactly how much they hold at present as some donors had said that in light of the furore around the artist’s commissioning process they were asking for their donations to be refunded.
It is believed that the former Lord Provost and councillor, Frank Ross was one of the trustees. Despite repeated requests for information there has been no confirmation of who the remainder of the trustees are, or indeed whether Mr Ross remains a trustee following his resignation as a councillor.
Draft legislation was introduced at The Scottish Parliament last November to try and ensure that this lack of transparency no longer persists. Instead it is planned to amend the law to oblige charities to publish the names of their trustees on the OSCR website.
A statue of Dr Elsie Inglis would be the first one commemorating a woman on the Royal Mile.
Why Elsie Inglis? Well because she was a trailblazing woman.
Project Esperanza
This one-year-old charity is “committed to the promotion of equality and diversity by raising awareness, challenging and reducing health and social inequalities through the provision of specific, specialist, faith sensitive, culturally appropriate and practical mental health, well-being and integration support and services to women and families of African heritage living in North Edinburgh”.
The CEO of Project Esperanza said: “We improve the lives of women and empower women because women are needed for the stability of the home, women are the backbone of communities and women shape the future.”
Today they are holding an event to mark International Women’s Day. It begins at 11am and you have to book a place – but it may not be too late to book. Otherwise you may find out more about the organisation and all the many events it organises by clicking here.
International Women’s Day Event at 4.30
The event is being organised jointly by Woman Life Freedom Edinburgh and International Women’s Strike Edinburgh. From 4.30pm in Bristol Square there will be performances followed by a protest march to the foot of the Mound to mark the day. The march will end with speeches, dance and music.
“Join our protest and activities for International Women’s Day 2023! This year’s theme is international and strike solidarity, with a focus on Iranian women’s struggle together with Woman Life Freedom Edinburgh.”
More details by clicking on either of the images below.
How to subscribe to The Edinburgh Reporter
Our March paper has just been published and has been sent out to existing subscribers. Today we invite you to support The Edinburgh Reporter by buying a subscription.
Our goal is to recruit 500 new subscribers this year. Can you help us achieve that?
Among others all branches of Farmer Autocare stock our newspapers as well as Birthlink on Lower Gilmore Place, and both Leith and Central Libraries.
If you would like to stock our papers then please get in touch.
If you are able to subscribe, then it would help us to keep our online coverage free to access, and also ensure the future of our newspaper for this coming year. And if you do, then thank you very much indeed.
Buy a subscription here or click the image below.
And if you would like to know a little more about the story behind our front page then here it is…
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
