Who else is tired of Women's Month conferences?

News24

6 days ago

Women are victims of the gender pay-gap but men are the ones speaking on this subject at conferences.
Sometimes women are invited to speak but are they paid accordingly?
After these conferences are done, we are reminded that the more things change the more they stay the same.
Women's Month is almost upon us once again and, as has become customary, conferences, webinars and other discussion gatherings are already mushrooming all over the place. Some of these are ridiculously disastrous and insulting to women.
From known misogynists as panellists at empowerment discussions to men as the key speakers at gender pay-gap webinars to women paid peanuts that aren't even salted, it's clear that we are never making it out of patriarchy.
One of my biggest concerns has always been around the vetting processes and the approval of these 'experts'. To revisit the example above, how are men pay-gap experts when this is not even their lived experience?
Prof. Zerihun, Head of the Faculty of Economics and Finance, spoke on the gender pay gap emphasising that although productivity should determine pay irrespective of gender, this principle has been compromised due to factors like occupational segregation and the motherhood penalty pic.twitter.com/iHwdeAiMoi
— Official TUT (@Official_TUT) August 27, 2024
I'll tell you my opinion on how they obtained this expertise: by listening to women relaying their reality. That said, where is the logic in asking men to reiterate tales that were told to them when we can simply go to the source and obtain the information straight from the horse's mouth?
As much as women can talk and write about their experiences of being underpaid and overworked just because they have a uterus, they are equally capable of hopping on to podiums and saying this inside conference rooms.
As women, we are forced to work twice as hard to prove ourselves, but God forbid this be reflected on our payslips and how dare we demand platforms to acknowledge that we can speak for ourselves?
Dearest organisers. We're heading to Women's month and like clockwork - the bookings have started. And without fail, women like me, who only get these gigs at least twice a year, are being asked to labour for free.
Enough already. We can't be saying this every year.
STOP IT.
— Bev (@bevditsie) July 16, 2025
Many of these conferences also cost an arm and a leg to attend but, because we are hungry for motivation, we part with thousands and flock to them to listen to these alleged experts speaking on our behalf.
Perhaps we are just gullible because, come September, gender-based violence stats are still climbing, our salaries remain an embarrassment, our business ideas are still collecting dust and we are still being sexually harassed at our workplaces.
Workplace harassment is the pits because the men speaking at these conferences try to convince us to report these incidents, but the truth is that, very often, our superiors are men.
When you go and report, how do you even know that that same boss wasn't discussing your bra size with the perpetrator just last weekend?
Today the Ombud Council joins global leaders, policymakers, and advocates at the @g20org Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment Conference at Sun City, North West Province, themed 'Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges."
This gathering explores how to make financial systems… pic.twitter.com/XMexl0NG3r
— Ombud Council (@OmbudCouncil) May 6, 2025
One of my favourite quotes is from a placard I saw many years ago that read: I can't believe we are still protesting this. It's ridiculous because my child is a teenager now and she is already grappling with the same patriarchy that women were trying to dismantle before I was even born.
A men's conference may be the figment of social media's imagination, but it would be really interesting to see who would speak on behalf of men if the concept ever made it to real life.