International Women’s Day is a global day to celebrate the achievements of women and to continue making the call for gender parity.
Let’s break that down.
International Women’s Day is a global day to:
Celebrate the Achievements of Women
While we hope this is more than an annual occurrence, we need to a moment to recognize the women who are driving change a progress within their homes, communities, workplaces, cities, states, countries, and beyond. These accomplishments can be big and small, across industries, and they take on many shapes and forms. We’ve seen the Silence Breakers, lists of the most powerful women, and women to watch in 2018. Each and every one of them should be celebrated—but it is also a time to celebrate the women around you every day. The women who get you through the unnecessary meetings at work, who encourage you to be your best, and the women you call on when you just need to vent. It’s important to take time to recognize the power that each person has, and be grateful for the progress that we’ve made to create a more equitable environment for all.
Image from: http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/
Continue Making the Call for Gender Parity
Many individuals may assume that the progress that has been made up to this point is enough. That it has brought us to a point of parity in the form of equal wages and opportunities for women. Unfortunately, the reality is that while progress has been made, globally we are still over 200 years away from true parity if we continue at our current rates of improvement (and sometimes setbacks)—in the US, it will take 145 years.
Image from: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2017/shareable-infographics/
According to the 2017 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, this parity can be broken down into sub-categories, including:
- Economic Participation and Opportunity
- Educational Attainment
- Health & Survival
- Political Empowerment
Image from: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2017.pdf
In the US, educational attainment scores of the charts, but there is still work to be done to drive parity in the categories of economic participation and opportunity, as well as significant work in political empowerment. Together, we can make the call for continued progress in these areas to encourage more women in leadership at the company, and country levels.
Image from: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2017/shareable-infographics/
These are the reasons to take some time on March 8th (or anytime in the month of March!) to dedicate time to celebrate International Women’s Day. Feeling stuck with what to do next? Our next post will dive into how you can celebrate with your workplace!
Stay strong, my friends.