International Women’s Day is meant to be a day to celebrate women. But every year, big cashed-up corporations around the world ask women to speak for free at International Women’s Day events, adding to the US$10.8 trillion worth of unpaid labour women already do each year. The irony is enough to leave you speechless.
Given women in Australia do around 70% of all unpaid labour, it seemed only fair to Clems and Less Than 10% F*ck That that they step in and do some of that free labour for all the women being asked to talk for free on International Women’s Day. Enter The Fee Speech— a free presentation women can use for their talks to educate the people who’ve asked them to speak for nothing.
To promote the initiative, Clems tapped someone who’s rarely left speechless: award-winning journalist and powerful social commentator, Jane Caro. Caro stars in a social video calling out the corporations who use International Women’s Day as a day to extract more free labour (a speech, of course, that she was paid for), and drives viewers to download the presentation.
Jane commented that, “This is a great initiative from Clems, and I was delighted to take part (and get my invoice paid) having not only been asked numerous times to speak for free on IWD, but on two occasions to pay for the privilege! Women’s work is valuable which means it should be paid.”
Says Clems creative team Ellie Dunn and Hugh O’Connor, “This is an issue we’ve seen play out over LinkedIn for years. We hope The Fee Speech speaks to women everywhere who’ve experienced this firsthand. But more importantly, we hope it gets through to the big organisations guilty of doing this. Who, as Jane puts it, can ‘bugger off.’”
The campaign also features a poster that doubles as a script women can use if they’ve been asked to speak for free at an IWD event.
Adds Clems CCO Adrián Flores,“At Clems we strive to make big things that Australians talk about. And this is a topic that certainly necessitates more conversation. And less mansplaining from me.”
The campaign is supported by Less Than 10% F*ck That, a global community dedicated to championing female creative leadership. Founder Mikhaila Warburton says, “With ‘Rights, Equality, Empowerment,’ as this year’s International Women’s Day theme, The Fee Speech is a powerful reminder to recognise and respect women’s time and talent—not just on IWD, but every single day. It also highlights a much broader issue: ensuring women are truly valued for their contributions in the workplace. This is something I’m deeply passionate about, and a conversation that must continue beyond just one day of recognition.”
Visit thefeespeech.com
