Womanhood Journal helps #BreakTheBias for International Women’s Day
March 22, 2022
The 2022 Womanhood Journal, which shares a collection of female business stories from across the Kāpiti & Horowhenua regions of New Zealand marked International Women’s Day.
In its second edition, the Journal features diverse stories of 26 local business women from across the Horowhenua and Kāpiti region, with all proceeds donated to the Kāpiti Women’s Centre and Horowhenua Women’s Refuge.
Reminding women of their resilience and power
Connector and project coordinator, Anna Colville-Smith from ACS Marketing Consultancy says after the response to the inaugural journal she and her team were reminded of the power of storytelling. “In 2021, we distributed 500 journals across the region, thousands read the stories online and our book was covered on the International Women’s Day global website. We have heard stories of people being inspired by what they read and women featured told us the process of telling their stories helped them.”
Anna says that internationally, women have been more adversely affected by the pandemic and more than ever, women in business need to support and inspire each other.
Anna suggests that the #BreakTheBias theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is very fitting with much discussion about fair pay in Aotearoa, Nw Zealand.
“As women we need forums like the Womanhood Journal to remind our communities and ourselves of our resilience and power as women. People need information to break biases and storytelling is a powerful first step toward that.”
Celebrating the journeys of local inspirational women
This year 26 women were profiled across business and community, including Michelle Rudd from Michelle Davies Photography and Trina Laracy of Paperdoll and Wallflower fashion boutiques who both feature on the cover of the Journal.
So far the Journal has raised over NZD 3000 for Kapiti Women's Centre and Horowhenua Women's Refuge - and over the past two years the project has donated NZD 5000 to these organisations.
Kāpiti Women’s Centre Manager, Louise Waterworth, says that having a Womanhood Journal full of local inspirational women and their unique journeys is amazing for the community.
“The Womanhood Journal is a testament to the impact of storytelling. It is my only hope that my story lifts another woman.”
Everyone has the power to break the bias
The Journal was designed by Lemonface Creative and edited by Deacon Rd. All of the pages in the magazine feature the X’s which is the symbol for the International Women’s Day #BreakTheBias theme and represent that everyone has the power to break bias.
The group behind the project have the goal of it growing and becoming an annual publication that evolves every year.
500 copies of the Womanhood Journal are being printed and distributed across the community and are available for a donation from Paperdoll, Raumati Village, The Bookshelf, Waikanae and The Otherside, Levin. A digital version is available for reading from womanhoodjournal.nz.
To get involved and to share your own female-focused project visit womanhoodjournal.nz
Photo caption: Sarah-Jayne Shine, Jess Deacon, Anna Colville-Smith
Photo Credit: Helen Lea-Wall, Nomad Creative