Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day.
Inspiring Change is the 2014 theme for IWD which encourages advocacy for women’s advancement everywhere, in every way. It calls for challenging the status quo for women’s equality and vigilance inspiring positive change.
It advocates Inspiring Change for…
- greater awareness of women’s equality
- for more women in senior leadership roles
- for equal recognition of women in the arts
- for growth of women-owned businesses
- for increased financial independence of women
- for more women in science, engineering and technology
- and for fairer recognition of women in sport
Women writers and writers of color are under-served and under-valued by the contemporary literary community. I looked at the statistics at Vidaweb and it was pretty disturbing. This disparity deserves greater attention. As the adage goes, you can’t fight what you cannot see.
Inspired by 2014 being celebrated as the Year of Reading Women Writers, SheReadsSouthAsia is an initiative to discover, celebrate and discuss works by South Asian women writers. By involving both writers and readers, SheReadsSouthAsia – supported and conceived by Indireads aims to facilitate discussion, interaction and dialogue among the women writers from the region and their global readers.
There are many ways in which we can get involved:
As a Reader : Encouraging reading for pleasure could be one of the most effective ways of bringing about social change.
- Follow @SheReadsSA on twitter, and on FB.
- Check the #SheReadsSouthAsia and #SheReadsSA hashtags frequently to discover more amazing writers from South Asia. Read their works, and tweet what you thought of their work – a micro-review – using #SheReadsSouthAsia or #SheReadsSA
- Authors thrive on feedback about their work. Remember to rate and review (on Amazon, Goodreads and your favorite online bookstore) the books that you’ve read. The authors will be thankful for your feedback, and you will be helping other readers discover great books they might like.
- Send the SheReadsSouthAsia bookmarks to five friends on twitter (using their handles) copying @SheReadsSA and including #SheReadsSouthAsia / #SheReadsSA to receive a free gift from Indireads.
- Whenever you find a quote – or an amazing sentence – in a book, tweet it and put it on Facebook/Goodreads. Quotes have a much bigger impact and pull than book titles.
As an Author :
- Follow @SheReadsSA on twitter, and on FB.
- Tweet out using the #SheReadsSouthAsia / #SheReadsSA hashtags to let more and more readers discover your works.
- If you would like your name to appear on the bookmarks, please tweet to us at @SheReadsSA, including the hashtag, and let us know about your work.
- Follow the #SheReadsSouthAsia / #SheReadsSA hashtags to discover more fellow female writers from South Asia.
- Encourage your readers to review your books and send out using #SheReadsSouthAsia / #SheReadsSA hashtags.
As a Blogger :
- Follow @SheReadsSA on twitter, and on FB.
- Show your support by encouraging your twitter followers to follow @SheReadsSA on twitter, and on FB.
- Tweet out using the #SheReadsSouthAsia / #SheReadsSA hashtags to let more and more readers discover great authors.
- Write about this initiative. You can link back to this page or copy and share the bookmarks on your blog. Mention your favorite South Asian women writers. Start a challenge on your blog.
Let’s do our bit to bring about the change. Here’s to more power to women writers and more power to women readers!
Happy Women’s Day!
Linking it to Write Tribe Festival of Words – 3 : Day 7 : International Women’s Day 2014
57 Responses
Every bit helps 🙂
Yes, every bit truly counts. I remember reading this quote, which explains how every effort howsoever small it is, counts… If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito. 🙂
Very helpful tips and information Shilpa
Thank you Pixie. Hope you have followed @SheReadsSA on twitter, and on FB. 🙂
Wonderful ! Sharing this, Shilpa ji 🙂
Thanks a lot, Sreeja. Appreciate your support. 🙂
Wow great! Yes we do need more women to read, write and grow!
Well said, Aditi and that’s exactly the thought behind this initiative 🙂
Nice one.But the work remains more in the field particularly among the poorer classes where girls are deprived of education and consequent loss of opportunities for growth.Political and economic empowerment that is inclusive of the poorer strata of the women should be the goal for which women should work
Absolutely, there’s a lot that needs to be done for women empowerment in the field of social and economic growth. And the same has been in focus for this year’s Inspiring Change for IWD 2014 too. I chose to share about the disparity in the literary community!
Great and concrete post Shilpa. I want to spread this. Didn’t know about it. And as you say : you can not fight what you don’t see. So agree – that is need more attention. Lets all do our bit. Happy Women’s Day to you and thanks for a read that inspired me 🙂
Thanks a lot, Eli, glad that you support this initiative. We have strength in numbers! We must do our bit to spread awareness and inspire the change that we wish to see in the literary community! 🙂
I am guilty for not having read many south asian women authors. 🙁 I agree we should encourage more women and help them get recognition.
Oh, it’s never too late, A! You can start right now 🙂
Very interesting. It will be awesome to read women writers and their thoughts at a stretch. Blogging alone does not allow this opportunity. Thanks a ton.
Happy Womens Day
Women writers need all our support and recognition! Glad you endorse that too! Thanks Viyoma 🙂
Shilpa, some great information here, thanks for the same. Will follow SheReadsSA and be updated on the latest happenings. Wish you a very happy International Women’s Day, always.
Thank you Sulekha for your support for this initiative!
A very happy women’s day to you too! 🙂
Shilpa, thanks for showing us ways we can make it happen. A happy IWD!
Thanks for your support, Michelle! Happy women’s day to you too!
Absolutely brilliant way to inspire change by encouraging reading women writers, I need to start with myself and spread the word as well. I agree with you quotes have incredible impact.
Thanks Hemlata! Thanks for sharing about this initiative.Appreciate it 🙂
I didn’t realize that the statistics were so disturbing… I have signed up for SheReadsSA… Hoping to read new writers
Yes, I was surprised to see such disparity too. Thanks Raj for following SheReadsSA 🙂
Very thoughtful and useful tips. Statistics show that much more has to be done.
Yes, before this even I was not aware about this grave an imbalance!! 😐
Education and literacy are the first small steps taken toward bigger goals. Am sharing this post.
Well said, a literate society can help bring the much needed changes. Thanks Kalpana 🙂
Didn’t know of this. Thanks for sharing.
Happy Women’s Day everyday:)
Hope you have followed @SheReadsSA on twitter, and on FB, Anita 🙂
Happy Women’s Day everyday to you too 🙂
I have signed up for updates from SheReadsSA too. Thank you for sharing this with us. It really is a good initiative. 🙂
Thank you so much, Jyothi for your support! Cheers 🙂
How cool of you to support other women readers and writers! I now follow SheReadsSA on Twitter, FB and have signed up for the newsletter.
You are a rockstar, LuAnn! Thanks for supporting this initiative. Appreciate it 🙂 ♥
That’s a pretty good initiative. When I went to see Lionel Shriver recently, she mentioned how in the US as well, women writers are not considered when it comes to literature….the male writers like Jonathan Franzen get kudos for writing epic novels but when women do the same, there is not much fuss made about it. She’d written an article about the gender divide in literature. I’ll follow this on Twitter! Thanks for enlightening us Shilpa!
Thanks for sharing about your experience of meeting Lionel! Who would have thought that such a big disparity occurs in the literary world too!! Thanks for yor support, PB 🙂
Powerful initiative, Shilpa. Would love to support She Reads in my own way.
Cheerz
Thank you Vishal 🙂
A very useful post shilpa:) will sign up immediately on fb and twitter and will do my best to share this.
Thanks a lot, Asha! ♥
Thanks for sharing this piece of info 🙂
My pleasure Dreamzandclouds! 🙂
The real essence of Women’s Day is Dignity and prosperity of every single woman….thanks for the information
True that! Thanks Sheela 🙂
I found their initiative very interesting and also encouraging as a writer. great to see that publishers involving south asia women in their endeavours extensively 🙂
A need of the hour initiative, truly! 🙂
I have followed your example and followed SheReads. Reading is knowledge! A lovely post to recognize how wonderful and capable women are. Brilliant! ♥
Thank you for your support, Kathy! You are a sweetheart! ♥
My best wishes to all the lovely ladies in the universe.
Lets try and make every day a Womens’ Day.
Thank you so much Mr Chowla 🙂
I really like this initiative…have to go back and read more on it as reading from mobile is turning out to be restrictive…
Cool! Do check it out later, Nabanita! 🙂
that was something i wasn’t aware of…..that’s a great initiative! why should gender be the reason for not being given equal opportunities? and of all fields, in literature!
This discrimination in the literary world, isnt that shocking??
Hadn’t hear of this but what a great idea. to honour women writers/ readers / bloggers. Thanks for sharing.
This initiative was launched on women’s day! 🙂
WOW, whatt an article dear ! superb and my best wishes to you !! 😀