1st July 2020 is International Joke Day and while we’re the first to have a good giggle at a cat meme or funny video, this annual day also gives us an opportunity to highlight the fact that gender disparity and inequality is no laughing matter. 

Using the campaign slogan ‘It’s No Joke’, The Women’s Organisation is publishing key facts and figures on the many ways women are treated differently. We all know this campaign could run for generations to cover all bases, and selecting just 6 to post on our social media channels proved to be a challenge.

Some facts are well known and yet have grown in severity due to the Corona Virus pandemic. Some facts have rolled through the decades from times when women were encouraged to ‘know their place’ and sadly not enough have improved to accommodate modern, forward thinking women. Some facts are utterly devastating and still need quality investment in discourse, policy and on-going systemic change to truly address the scale of the inequality.

‘It’s No Joke’ aims to encourage our social media audience to think again about women, our place in the world and our value. These are our chosen six campaign posts. If you’d like to read more, please click the source data provided.

At the beginning of the UK’s first lockdown in March 2020, women spent 55% more time than men on unpaid childcare. However, this difference is smaller than in Sept and Oct 2020, when women spent 99% more time on unpaid childcare than men.

Source: https://bit.ly/3h8H1Cj

At the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years to attain gender parity in politics.

Source: https://bit.ly/3xdVi6b

It’s no joke that until June 2021 working mothers could be sacked for refusing to work weekends.

Source: https://bit.ly/3wjbAtr

Nearly a quarter of women have experienced sexual assault or been a victim of an attempted sexual assault since the age of 16. Almost half (49%) had been a victim more than once.

Source: https://bit.ly/3Afn449

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, mothers are 1.5 times more likely than fathers to have either lost their job or quit since the start of the first lockdown and are also more likely to have been furloughed.

Source: https://bit.ly/2UVTrVs

More than 60% of UK’s top female athletes make less than UK£10,000 per year. It’s no joke.

Source: https://bit.ly/3qBTe5A

To get involved with our ‘It’s No Joke’ campaign, follow @TheWomensOrg on Twitter and @thewomensorganisation on Instagram and share your thoughts.