Stop Saying Women Can’t! They Can! And They Will!

International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 and honors women all over the world. It presents a chance to applaud the social, economic, cultural, political, and other achievements of women. It’s a moment to think about their rights, promote female empowerment, and fight for gender equality. Also, we can speak about voting, equal pay, or safe space. These are the major talking points that have been recently spinning around women in India. Yet, almost no one stopped to think if these women can succeed in the male-dominated carpentry artistry.

Well almost no one. Luckily for us, Greenply Plywood, in association with Archana Women’s Center—a Kerala-based organization that works towards empowering women—is here to show that women can do anything. To prove just that, the brand designed a small experiment where the participants had to guess what objects have come from a woman’s hand.

Meticulously planned by Ogilvy Kolkata, the test invites a group of women to an art gallery, where a wardrobe hides various objects. The participants were asked one simple question: Which one of the displayed objects was designed by a woman? The ladies inspected the articles in front of them, trying to guess which items were crafted by a woman’s hand. The participants all turned to pretty much the same objects: pieces of clothing or food. None of them assigned the art of manufacturing furniture piece to a woman. Not even a single lady.

After the inspection ended, the subjects were invited to watch a short movie which showed the piece of furniture being built by an all-woman carpentry team, from scratch. Shortly after, the women who stand behind the wooden piece emerged in the room and were introduced to the surprised participants.

Greenply is a company that honors women who have a definitive role in its business enterprise. The brand’s plant in Tizit, Nagaland, employs over 130 women – nearly half of the workforce. It also works with a network of over 550 female architects across India. The company strives to empower women and encourage them to become a part of the brand’s ecosystem, where they can drive the industry forward with their enterprise.

Via this project, Greenply hopes to turn this domain—which was long known as a men’s industry—into one where women can express their talent and skills. That’s why the company fights for women’s rights and asks everyone to stop saying ‘women can’t.’

“The seeds of patriarchy are sowed so deep that we still express wonder when we hear of women working in certain professions. Carpentry is one of them. We wanted to seize the opportunity to drive home the flaws in our ways of thinking. That’s why we chose Women’s Day as the right time to catapult this event,” said Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy West.

“Our goal is to dismantle the barriers of gender discrimination prevailing in the technical employment sector, by means of training, empowerment and continued motivational and employment support to women. We train underprivileged women in the society and arm them with the weapon of self-reliance and dignity to combat livelihood challenges,” continued Miss Thresiamma Mathew, Director at Archana Women’s Center.

Is Greenply’s initiative enough to #StopSayingWomenCant? We think that yes, this is exactly what it takes to prove that all women are strong enough to do whatever they want and what’s in their power. So, don’t just hide. Stand up and show to the world that you can! Or get some inspiration below first.