MARCH 8th
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Celebration of women
or masterpiece of marketing?
If you search for #internationalwomensday on Instagram, a collage of smiling female faces will appear, inviting you to take advantage of a super discount on cosmetics, beauty treatments, and massage packages. Supported by easy-to-share quotes about “girl power”, they celebrate a very specific conception of beauty and femininity.
Men are also the target of these marketing campaigns. It's up to them to remind us that, at very least on March 8th, we should indulge in pampering, whims, or a bit of relaxation.
Why technology is feminist
Even in 2021, it’s assumed that technology (and science in general) is by and large the domain of men. The world of electronics in particular is full of gender stereotypes: who cares about hardware, circuits, transistors, telephones, and computers? Men, of course. And yet - not everyone knows that we enjoy WiFi today thanks to the mind of a woman, Hedy Lamarr.
At Einova, we know that technology is the science of progress. It’s a gender-neutral space where good ideas are transformed into innovative solutions. Wireless chargers, power banks, power supplies, adapters: what do those who buy them have in common? Not gender, but the need to simplify everyday life by combining functionality and efficiency.
“EMPOWERED PEOPLE, EMPOWERED TECH, EMPOWERED PLANET”
Behind the simplicity of our motto is all the evocative power of a message of intersectional emancipation.
EcoVoltas technology is the result of a meticulous rethinking of electronic power supply in terms of greater energy efficiency and lower environmental impact. The issue of environmental sustainability has now become an integral part of the feminist reflection on the dynamics of exploitation. Ecofeminism in particular aims to combine the defense of women's values and rights with the safeguarding of territories, communities, the biosphere, and health. In short, change has many facets, and innovation is possible only by reconsidering the system in its complexity and at the global level.1
The future ahead
Einova is looking toward the future, to progress. But there can be no progress without emancipation. This International Women’s Day, while it is important to remember how far we have come, it is even more important to understand how far we still have to go. Gender equality remains an unfinished project. Under the appearance of change, the legacy of a profoundly sexist culture is hidden - and it’s not even hidden very well.
Every time they belittle your competence, override your authority, suggest to you who and what you should be; every time they explain things to you that you already know, interrupt you, make an inappropriate joke, and then accuse you of not understanding the irony; every time they decide what best suits your nature, try to take away your voice, your space, your freedom; every time time you’re judged, made to feel insecure, inadequate, with your dignity trampled on; in short, every time being a woman has meant something other than simply being yourself - all of these times, the future has receded and progress has stopped.
To move forward, we need to start here.
1 "Ecofeminism". Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/ecofeminism.
This March 8th, remember that the challenges and goals of technology are the challenges and goals of all of us.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Irene, translated by Natasha
