Self-confidence on International Women's Day 2012

Self-confidence for women is a must. And helping women develop more self-confidence skills is an important part of celebrating International Women's Day.

Why do women need more self-confidence in a country like Australia, where women seem to be doing so well?

Here are two of many reasons.

Reports indicate that approximately 46,000 women in Australia sleep rough, or are on the streets homeless, each night. Many are escaping domestic violence and have children with them, others are destitute and have mental illness. It is an appalling statistic that Australia needs to be ashamed of.

Secondly, women in Australia do not receive equal pay to men. We do not lead the world in pay equality, in fact we are well down the world rankings and well behind other countries that are not as well off as Australia.

By the way, this is not because women have more menial jobs than men. Women on exactly the same level, doing the exact same role, with the exact same qualifications and experience are being paid less than men.

It is only by having the self-confidence to demand that this situation be corrected that women will achieve equality.

It is only by having the self-confidence to stand up to men who say "Oh, you don't have equal pay because you go off and have babies", that we can get equality.

It's only by having the self-confidence to influence policy that International Women's Day will be really valuable. 

I was delighted to be invited to speak at five different events this year on International Women's Day. Fantastic. Sadly, I could only practically manage two. However, what was wonderful about both events was that they were helping their women to further develop their self-confidence skills so they could achieve even more at work.

Jane Agnew, Alice Waddingham, Adelaide Kohler, Kelly Podesta, Michelle Leone-Smith, Rachel, Karolina Wolinski & Kaye Fraser-Rae organisers and attendees at the SKM International Women's Day event 2012. There are many confidence techniques, but building self-confidence one step at a time is what makes the difference.

"Put your hand up" and ask to do things was a common theme in both of my presentations.

I explained in the SKM event that too often, we as women, wait to be asked and therefore we get overlooked.

"Have the self-confidence to put your hand up", I said. Ask to chair a committee, ask to MC an event, ask to be the project leader. Have the self-confidence to speak out at meetings. Have the self-confidence to tell a man to wait while you finish speaking.

If each woman in the workforce develops the self-confidence to put her hand up we could change the status of women in one day.

At SKM self-confidence was built for both women and men. It was marvellous to have so many men voluntarily attend, join in and learn.

If you want some more ideas on to how to speak with self-confidence at a meeting watch this video.

Some men in Australia have a long way to go in understanding the situation that women face.

On the morning of International Women's Day I heard Eoin Cameron, one of the ABC's most popular breakfast announcers say he was crossing to Babs McCue, the ABC's resources reporter. He called her a "fire eating feminist". 

Why did he call her this? Simply because she was attending a breakfast hosted by the Chamber of Minerals and Energy on International Women's Day.

This is why we need to include men, and not exclude them, if we are to make progress and truly build the self-confidence of women on International Women's Day.

There is so much I could say and SKM let me keep talking for an extra half-an-hour, ee were having such a good time.

Rachel with Lorie Jones, MC at the SKM event. I asked them why was it that expressions such as "a woman with balls" exists, yet the equivalent term for men does not exist. Ever referred to a man as having ovaries?

We need the self-confidence to stamp out this ridiculous concept. Instead, let's embrace strong, clear, confident women, and women as leaders.

Helping women develop self-confidence and equality at work is not about the masculisation of women, nor is it about the sexualisation of women and maintaining their status as "coy, nice girls".

It's about building their strengths and self-confidence as women so that they contribute their strengths fully and everyone benefits, both men and women.

We laughed so much together at SKM it was wonderful.

Both the men and women went away understanding the negative history that women have endured. The Scold's Bridle was shown to all of them and shocked many.

To find out more about how our history as women impacts on us today, and to discover more about the Scold's Bridle then watch this video.

International Women's Day is not about groups of women getting dressed up and attending lunch. In fact, this just serves to keep us in our place.

If International Women's Day is to be valuable it needs to have both women AND men celebrating women. It needs to help up-skill women to gain the self-confidence they need. It needs to produce measurable results of improvements for women, while accepting that both women and men play valuable roles in the workplace. 

It is clear why women need to build their self-confidence, and how this self-confidence can be built.

What will you do in celebration of International Women's Day to build your self-confidence?