International Women’s Slay
Photo Source: Ryan Kenny (@kenixarchive)
By Heather Dunlop
International Women’s Day brought Glasgow girls together as we marched and chanted through the streets, from Kelvingrove Park to George Square. Organised by Abbie Aziz and Esti Gil, presidents of SWAG (Successful Women at Glasgow), in conjunction with Wiln+ (Women in Leadership Network) the event was a well-planned opportunity to bring everyone together to celebrate femininity and fight for gender equality.
Belinda and myself met Abbie and Esti at the Queen Margaret Union beforehand and spoke to them a bit about what they do and the event itself. “SWAG is a student society and we’re a feminist platform at the University of Glasgow. We get involved in lots of different things, we fundraise for Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis – last year we raised over £4,000.
“Today is International Women’s Day and we’ve organised an International Women’s Day march, it’s a bit of a daunting thing to organise but with a whole group of amazing people we have organised is this, and what I hope with it is just to see a bit of unity on a day like today.”
Prior to the march, there was time to make our own signs, with supplies provided by SWAG – in which they had also made additional signs for those we were meeting at Kelvingrove. Pictured above is myself with my ‘Empowered Women Empower Women’ sign and Belinda with her ‘International Women’s Slay’ sign.
The organisers did an amazing job with setting up everything and ensuring everything went as smoothly as possible. They were in touch with police and had liaison officers present to provide safety for everyone involved, in which they were able to keep the pace consistent and delay traffic.
Overall, this was an amazing experience for us and left us feeling loved and empowered. Big thank you to SWAG and Wiln+ for organising such an important and flawless event.
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