What is International Women’s Day?

What is International Women’s Day?
International Women’s Day is a day dedicated to educating all genders on the obstacles that women face in the economic, social, and political worlds, while celebrating their achievements on a global scale. It’s a day to educate all genders on the issues that women face across the world at home, in the workplace, and everywhere between those Points A and Points B.

We know well our obstacles in our own lives. This is a day to acknowledge the bigger, systemic issues and what those barriers look like in every country.

What is the #PledgeforParity?

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #PledgeforParity. Leaders across the world are coming together digitally and in conferences to discuss the pay equity gap and the slowed rate of progress that the World Economic Forum has recorded in the past two years for closing that gap (parity).

In 2014, the World Economic Forum found that it would take until 2095 to come to global parity. In other words, it would take 81 years for women to achieve the exact same salaries as their male counterparts in the same positions.

As shocking as that statistic is, the World Economic Forum released a new study in 2015 that demonstrated a drastic decline in rate of progress, noting that global parity would not be reached until 2133.

What Can We Do?

Log on to www.internationalwomensday.com. All genders, all races, all classes, and all nationalities have the ability to #pledgeforparity this year. This means that you can pledge to do your part to close the gender equity gap.

There are five key ways to accelerate gender equity. You can pledge to:

• Help women and girls achieve their ambitions
• Challenge conscious and unconscious bias
• Call for gender-balanced leadership
• Value women’s and men’s contributions equally
• Create inclusive, flexible cultures

After making the pledge, look to the events page on www.internationalwomensday.com to find an event near you. Events range from industry-specific conferences that talk about real actions being taken within organizations to less formal meeting of all genders to discuss what we can do outside of work to further accelerate closing the gender equity gap.

Happy International Women’s Day! While we move toward parity, don’t forget to celebrate the strides that women have made in the last year. If we are only using half of our workforce, we are only reaching half of our innovative potential.