Today, March 8th, 2018 marks International Women’s Day. This day is recognized worldwide to celebrate women’s achievements, as well as bring awareness to gender equality rights. International Women’s Day has been part of tradition in many countries, but only seems to have made waves in the United States in recent years.
The United States has always observed International Women’s Day, but this is the first year that I personally have taken part in the celebration. It’s also the first year that I’ve noticed such public fanfare surrounding the day. Per NBC News, Barbie released a line of ‘role model’ dolls ahead of International Women’s Day. The article states, “The brand announced on Tuesday that it has 17 modern-day and historic role models to honor with a doll in their likeness” (NBC News). Along with that, Apple released an exercise challenge in celebration of the day. Large American companies are taking strides to celebrate women in the U.S., and shining a spotlight on International Women’s Day. Here at Experian in Boston, we decided to take the entire week to appreciate the women at our office, in our lives, and around the world.
Our goal for this week is to spread awareness and celebrate International Women’s Day by hosting a variety of events that educate both men and women on the strides women have made, and the process we continue to fight for. Our Women in Experian committed the last month to planning a variety of events to honor this day.
We have a range of events planned here in our office, as well as throughout greater Experian. Since Mother Nature decided to celebrate IWD with a March snow storm in the greater Boston area, we were forced to reschedule a number of our events throughout the rest of the month to span National Women’s Month. Events include writing postcards to the women in our lives who inspire us, a presentation by the Boston Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement, a panel with senior leadership, interactive activities to raise awareness to issues like gender inequality and human trafficking, assembling care kits for a local women’s organiziation, webinars, and wearing purple—the official color of International Women’s Day. We are ecstatic to see the outcome of each International Women’s Day event!
We are embracing the official motto #Pressforprogress by planning events like “Walk a mile in her shoes,” posting current statistics on women in the workplace, and organizing a group to attend a course on salary negotiations. Earlier in the month we also welcomed guest speakers from a neighboring technology company, Tamr, to speak on their experience of having 50/50 male-to-female ratio on their executive board.
Our inspiration behind turning International Women’s Day into a full week (turned month!) of events originated from a contingent in our Women in Experian group, then expanded when there were so many women in our office interested in making these events a success. International Women’s Day is here to take the time to appreciate all the women and men that have worked hard to get to this point today, and to empower women to continue to strive towards breaking the glass ceiling. Experian’s Boston office is very excited to see the outcome of our events, and thankful for all of the strong women who helped make this week possible, and who inspire us and strive for greater progress each and every day.
Experian is invested in supporting women and helping to make greater strides. We were recognized by the Advancing Women in Technology last year.
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