Accelerate Action: Prioritizing Women's Mental Health

In this milestone 50th episode of the PsycHope Self-Help Podcast, we honor International Women's Day 2025 with a special focus on this year's theme: Accelerate Action. Host Dr. Jennifer McManus reflects on the importance of rapidly advancing gender equity, emphasizing the crucial link between women's mental health and systemic barriers. She highlights current statistics, including the gender parity timeline and equal pay data, illustrating the urgent need for collective action. The episode concludes powerfully with poet and advocate Sharena Lee Satti’s inspiring poem, Accelerate Action, reminding us of the urgency and necessity for meaningful change.

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Hello and welcome! You’re listening to the PsycHope Self-Help Podcast: A space for women where psychology illuminates paths to healing, hope, and personal growth. I’m Dr. Jennifer McManus, a clinical psychologist and I’ll be your host. Each episode, we’ll explore a different way to use psychology to enhance emotional wellness. Hope you enjoy the show!

Hello! It’s episode 50—a milestone episode! As we reach this halfway mark to 100 episodes, it's especially meaningful to highlight International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2025 for this episode. Given our podcast’s commitment to nurturing women's emotional well-being, today provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on progress, celebrate the achievements of women, and inspire action toward gender equity.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is Accelerate Action, a powerful call for swift, decisive steps to close the gender equality gap and dismantle systemic barriers and biases women still face today. Together, we can accelerate meaningful progress toward gender equity worldwide.

For those of you interested in a deep dive into the impactful history of International Women's Day and the evolution of past themes, I invite you to give a listen to our 2023 episode, titled "Embrace Equity to Advance Women's Mental Health." That was episode 24 available in our podcast archives wherever you may be listening.

Last year in 2024, the theme was Inspire Inclusion, acknowledging the critical importance of ensuring women not only have a seat at the table but also feel empowered, welcomed, and valued. Inspiring inclusion fosters belonging, relevance, and empowerment— vital components in achieving meaningful progress.

Now that we’re caught up on recent years, let’s explore the theme for International Women's Day 2025, which is Accelerate Action. Here at PsycHope, we’re placing particular emphasis on accelerating action for health equity, specifically women's mental health. Health equity goes beyond equality by addressing the unique barriers that women face, ensuring they receive the tailored support needed for genuine mental health and emotional well-being.

Despite significant progress, there's still a sobering reality we must acknowledge. According to recent data from the World Economic Forum, at the current rate, achieving full gender parity worldwide won't happen until approximately the year 2158. Yeah, 2158, nearly five generations from now. Also, Equal Pay Day statistics for 2025 in the U.S. highlight that women still earn only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. This means women would have to work until March 25th to earn the same amount men did in 2024. Again, that’s women working all of 2024 and then almost a whole 3 months into the next year to earn the same amount as men. These figures underscore why we urgently need to accelerate our collective actions towards gender equity.

Despite these challenges, impactful, collective work does continue. Across the globe, organizations, communities, and individuals are stepping forward in solidarity—challenging stereotypes and advocating for women's advancement in business, STEM, education, health care, arts, sports, and beyond.

One of the most effective ways we can all contribute is through supporting those who support women and girls directly. That's why this year, International Women's Day encourages everyone to take part in fundraising efforts, big or small, supporting both global and grassroots groups tirelessly working for women’s advancement.

Today, as we unite to Accelerate Action, we reflect not only on the progress made but on the vast journey still ahead us. We simply can't afford to wait. Accelerating Action is our collective call to rapidly increase momentum, dismantle systemic barriers, and prioritize gender equity in all spheres of life.

In this spirit, I want to highlight the inspiring work of poet and advocate Sharena Lee Satti. Her powerful words encapsulate both the urgency and necessity of action. Sharena is an accomplished poet from Bradford, West Yorkshire in the UK whose work passionately advocates for women's advancement through poetry, community engagement, and grassroots initiatives.

As we wind down this episode, I’d like to read Sharena's impactful poem titled "Accelerate Action” to you.

When will the Awareness be the Action
If the soul carrier, the child bearers of the earth stopped giving birth
Who would be here to run the world, spinning the blue core of the universe
Who would be here to action the actions that never get actioned the deadly silence
Who would be here to plea for inequality of the Woman of the Girl
If no child was planted in the Uterus of the Universe
Would that change how a woman is seen, treated and bleeds
Would she become sacred, would her body become a shrine
That gender violence destroys because she is seen on earth
As the most high.
Do you still not see the urgency
During the pandemic, she  felt the hardship of its sacrifice
Through its disproportion, its burden was a test of her life
and the loss was a loss, seeking shelter she had to find
but where was the arms of recovery for the mountains she had to climb
When will the urgency be urgent enough for you to notice
That your ignorance is a crime
How many times can we scream in hope to be seen but then muted, doors slammed, manuscripts closed, subjected because of her clothes, how she walks, talks blinks how she thinks
How many protests, road blockages, voices screaming
Will it take for actions to be actioned amongst the self-sabotage of your hearing
When will the workplace whispers create legal policy documentation
When will government officials declare we no longer have to fight  as women for the  equality rights we are chasing
How many more stories can be written that we need to be saved in
Always the damsel in distress, the mistress, the witch burnt at the stake
When will society see women as the guardians of heavens gate
When will you action your awareness,  even she, the full moon Luna
Moves the dramatic  waves of the tide
When will you humans open your eyes
We don’t need your voices echoed on TV screens
Or your words dancing amongst coloured ink
That sits within the pages of a magazine
that neatly cut fingernails flick through
Yet the content is blindly seen
because it doesn't scream within the corridors
Of their mind
 It doesn't sit within their policies or shoulders of pride
It stays within the pages you don’t see, and the action are  never followed up
Because we are never treated equally
When will the urgency be seen
How long do we have to scream for you to see
The damage of gender inequality
How some are forced to be caged by their fear
Gender-based Violence is silenced by the Silent
The ignorance of the noise, of bold actions that need more than your voice
For the urgency of change
When will words become movement than the stillness of the page
When will awareness be the action the movement of the brave

That was Accelerate Action by Sharena Lee Satti. You will find a link to her website in the show notes in case you are interested in learning more about her, the inspiring poetry she writes, and the meaningful work she does in the world. There will also be a link to the International Women’s Day website in case you’d like to learn more about this important day and specific ways you personally can Accelerate Action. Thank you for joining me today in honoring International Women's Day. Let's commit together to Accelerate Action in some way, every day.

Much Peace Until Next Time.

The information shared on the PsycHope Self-Help podcast is done so with the understanding that it does not constitute professional help nor is it a substitute for professional help. If you think you might benefit from more than self-help, there are resources listed in the show notes.

Show Notes

Episode 50, originally published on March 8, 2025.

Official Website for International Women’s Day: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Official Website of Sharena Lee Satti: https://www.sharenaleesatti.com/

Disclaimer

The information shared on the PsycHope Self-Help podcast does not constitute professional help nor is it a substitute for professional help. If you think you might benefit from more than self-help, here are some helpful resources:

Find a therapist:

Psychology Today, directory for locating a psychotherapist. More details here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/

Mental health crisis resources:

Suicide Prevention Hotline: call or text 988

Crisis text line: text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor for any emotional crisis