Encore It’s International Women's Day, Not International Mother's Day! Tuesday, March 7, 2023

On International Women's Day, join us for this wide-ranging discussion with Jody Day. Whether mothers or not, we are women first, and that's the message IWD needs to get behind. We discuss the dark underbelly of the media & its roots in the ‘shadow’ archetype of the mother, and how the first place change needs to take place is in our own minds, by awakening to the seductive & corrosive power of pronatalism and how it limits the visions, lives & futures of all women (which is exactly what it’s meant to do!) Jody Day is the British founder of Gateway Women, the global friendship, support & advocacy network she set up by accident after starting a blog sharing honestly the truth of her childlessness in 2011. It got media attention the day after the very first blog was published. Not long after, she was interviewed for The Guardian newspaper (UK) for a piece that went viral & is still being read today. She has often been referred to as 'the voice of the childless generation' Her compassionate and sometimes humorous take on all things childless-related is one that many have come to rely on. Jody has written & spoken often of the fetishization of motherhood, whilst devaluing non-motherhood to the detriment of all women. Another example of this is International Women's Day, which has increasingly come to be seen as yet another day in the year to 'celebrate motherhood'. Thus entirely neglecting the role that non-mothers play in the world, and further reducing women's social contributions to their reproductive status.