York International Women’s Week (YIWW) invites you to organise an event that places women and girls at the heart of the current challenges facing the UK and world today.

They encourage events that make connections among and between women, both locally and globally, from everyday concerns to the big issues. They also welcome events via their ‘open strand’ that may not seem to fall within the idea of ‘solidarity’, but are important to women and girls.

York International Women’s Week is itself an act of solidarity, as each year volunteer women in York come together to promote and organise a programme to mark 8^th March, International Women’s Day. Solidarity comes in many shapes and sizes, and they welcome events hosted by organisations, groups of friends or colleagues, or individuals – from information and activism, to crafts and fun, from global connections to reaching out locally to all women. They encourage creativity and surprises, so please don’t be shy with your suggestions!

Why ‘Solidarity’?

There are many differences between the experiences of women – economics, race, class, disabilities, sexuality, lived gender, age, and geography all play their part in our personal and communal lives. For instance, while the climate emergency and the covid-19 pandemic are global, they do not affect everyone equally, and the last two YIWW Programmes focussed on these events. Many recent events have shone a light on the extent of discrimination, underlining just how far we are from gender equality and justice. The murder of Mahsa Amini by Iranian “morality police” which sparked widespread protests by women and girls with violent government suppression, and the massive, legalised reduction of abortion access in parts of the USA are but two examples of the degree to which the oppression of women is institutionalised. In the UK the current tax and benefit actions are deepening and newly creating hardship for many (see recent reports from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation,  Women’s Budget Group and the Runnymede Trust ).  As feminists have shown, injustice is not natural or inevitable, but the result of ingrained notions of inequality which often lead to deliberately planned institutional actions.

Why an open strand?

While the potential for meaningful connection – for solidarity – is present in almost all events that include women and girls, we recognise that important events might have a different specific focus. We do not want to exclude any issues vital to the lives of women and girls, and are therefore keen to make space for events that fall outside the main theme.

What happens when women get together?

How can we learn from one another? What connections can we build with each other across class, race, ethnicity, disabilities, age, sexuality, religion, culture? How can we shift our ideas and our practices to work together in the face of structural inequalities? How can we build solidarity across organisations and individuals to create a better, more just future for all? For YIWW2023, let’s reach out to women across York and beyond, coming together for fun, for information, to plan, to gain strength, to take time out.

YIWW warmly welcome back regular organisers who have helped to develop such valuable YIWW programmes over the years, as well as encourage new organisers interested in gendered social justice locally and globally to join us. Events can be in-person, online, or a hybrid of both. Most events will take place between 4^th–12^th March though we may be able to accept relevant events either side of those dates.

The core guidelines are:

• organisers must address accessibility for in-person and online events, including physical, mental, and economic factors
• events must be not-for-profit, either free or only charging participants in order to cover expenses or fundraise for a women’s organisation; most events in the past were free
• events are open to all except where specified for ‘self-identified women’ or ‘self-identified women and non-binary people’.

YIWW can help with advice, technical support for online events, and sometimes with a small grant to support your open and accessible event – please ask.

Get Involved

• check out our website www.yorkwomen.org.uk for previous programmes
• email yorkwomensvoices@gmail.com if you have an idea and are not sure if it fits the theme, guidelines or dates, or if you would like to talk through your event suggestions before submission – they are very open to many different kinds of events; this Call for Events is a start, not an end-point.
• complete the short Event Application Form by the deadline of end of day on 8^th January 2023 (and earlier if you can!)