End patriarchy, support gender justice and let's fund peace not war

Happy International Women’s Day!

To celebrate this special day we have a number of resources to share, including recordings of our gender justice webinars held last Friday.

We also want to share some photos from the Women’s Day rally held over the weekend! And we've got an important e-action opportunity you can take today. Read on for all the details…

We'll jump to the e-action first. You might have heard the Tanáiste's comments last week - about using Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine as a wake up call to increase Ireland’s military spending.

Increased military spending is a grim thing to contemplate on International Women’s Day - research shows that higher military spending crowds out expenditure on civilian needs such as education and health. This disproportionately harms women, because, together with children, they are more dependent on social spending.

Say no to increased military spending - click here

As the world adds more and more to its military spending, the destructive power of humanity’s collective technologies to kill, destroy and obliterate life is increasing in a terrifying way.And other crucial issues, such as inequality, homelessness, gender justice and the climate crisis are not being given the ambitious finance or action they need.

Increased military spending would also increase Ireland’s carbon emissions - military carbon footprints are huge as this blog on the issue illustrates. We’ve got to ask the question - can our fiscal, carbon and moral budgets really afford to increase our military spending? Take our e-action to raise these concerns and ask your elected representatives not to increase military spending?

Click here to take the e-action

We also wanted to share some webinar recordings with you! Last week we hosted two short webinars to explore the intersections between gender justice and climate justice. We are so grateful to our speakers who shared their experience and expert knowledge about the challenges and solutions for a gender-just sustainable future.

“Gender Justice = Climate Justice” presented by V'cenza Cirefice explores ecofeminism, climate change as a feminist issue, women on the frontlines, feminist solutions and examples from around the world. You can watch it back here or in the screen below.

“Energy Poverty Through a Gender Lens” presented by Katherina Habersbrunner and Dr Lidija Živčič explores the gendered role of climate change, the gender blind European Green Deal, strong women actors, gender dimensions of energy and good practices for a gender-just sustainable future. You can watch it back here or in the screen below.

Last week we also saw the National Women’s Council hold a rally outside the Dáil to call for political leadership and action on women's equality. Speakers highlighted the power of women to bring about the change needed to tackle local and global crises. We've included some photos from it throughout this blog - we hope you like them!

If you’d like to find inspiration about what you can do to challenge patriarchal systems and learn more about the intersections between gender justice and climate justice, take a look at the resources we’ve compiled here.

View the gender justice resource list

We hope you've found something in this blog to help you mark International Women's Day and continue to support gender justice in the days and weeks ahead!