International Women’s Day 2024
International Women’s Day 2024 - A Day for Reflection
On international women’s day, I always find myself reflecting on what it means to me, to my children, family and friends, to my colleagues, to people in my community, our country and globally.
As I try to put it down on paper, I find it impossible to articulate my thoughts and I end up feeling emotional. I guess the emotion is a combination of many things.
It is the gratitude and admiration I feel to all the people who have contributed to how far we have come, who have stood up, who have fought and who have called out bad behaviour. It’s the raw, and probably un-dealt with emotion of experiences that I’ve had across my life where being a girl or a woman has made me feel scared, less than, bullied and discriminated against, and it’s knowing that I am not alone with those feelings.
And then there is the passion and excitement that gets triggered by the many events across the globe where people band together to fight for equality, and make plans to advocate for change.
I think about the number women and girls in other countries, who still have so far to come in reaching any sort of equality. I think about the extremely intelligent, inspirational and capable women that I know who still experience inequality around boardroom tables, generally in society, in their homes and in their work places. I reflect on the stories, which quite frankly should not exist.
It’s just impossible to encompass the many feelings, emotions and thoughts that comes with this day, but what I do know is that it is a day that’s necessary. I am hopeful as the years go by, it is more and more about celebrating achievement and progression - and less about the challenges that exist.
So, I will be celebrating IWD, I will be celebrating being a woman, I will be celebrating all the other amazing women, I will be celebrating being surrounded by my four amazing daughters, my incredibly strong mother and sister, cousins, friends and colleagues. I will be celebrating the men that support women and work with us to achieve equality. But I will also be thinking about how I can play my part in advocating for girls and women.
I love this year’s theme for international women’s day, ‘Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress’. It has certainly got me thinking about what I can do in my business and every day encounters to “count her in”. I have created a list of how I can #countherin and given suggestions to my team at work on how they may do the same.
I would love to know what IWD means to you and your ideas on how we can #countherin, invest in women and accelerate their progress.