Fck the Cupcakes urges men to ‘show up’ on International Women’s Day
Australian gender equality organisation Fck The Cupcakes is urging men to ‘show up’, lean in and listen on International Women’s Day.
The ‘Show up for Equality’ campaign is urging Australians to actively invite men to attend IWD events. The campaign, which incorporates out-of-home, digital and social activity, in addition to a viral video which takes Andrew Tate's negative words and edits them into an inclusive message.
Fck The Cupcakes founder and Innocean CEO Jasmin Bedir says the campaign aims to encourage men to get involved with International Women’s Day and equality initiatives, which are predominantly viewed as a “women’s event”.
“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,” says Bedir.
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The campaign is based on an insight from the World Economic Forum study, which revealed women are two times as likely to work on a DE&I initiative as men, something which is mostly taken for granted and rarely acknowledged in performance reviews.
Wez Hawes, executive creative director at Innocean, says, “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. The truth is, we need men to be engaged; otherwise we will never move the needle on gender equality.”
The campaign is supported by a dedicated site which contains all the information to get Australia's ‘good guys’ inspired into action.