At the beginning of March
there will be a flurry of activities to celebrate International Women’s Day
(IWD) which is actually
March 8.
Like many of these special
days, you sort of think we should be celebrating the achievements of women
every day, or at least more often.
International Women’s Day actually
dates back to the early 1900s when women were fighting to get the vote and
better working conditions.
Today it is celebrated in
many different ways around the world and in some countries it is actually an
official holiday, although in China, for example, just for women only.
In many European countries
it is seen as a time for men to honour their mothers, wives, girlfriends,
daughters and small gifts and flowers are frequently given as a sign of their
affection and respect.
Today young women may feel
that the battle is over, and that women are equal, after all we have several
female prime ministers and women as CEOs of major corporations, but us older gals, still feel
there is much to achieve, particularly for women working in male dominated
industries.
What has changed over the
years is the focus of the events which have gone from marches and protests, to
more celebrations.
I’ve had the pleasure to
work directly on a couple of IWD events this year – one in Guelph on March 5 which is a collaborative event with different women’s groups coming together to
put on an evening event. Their focus is
on resilience, with local business owners sharing their strategies for
successfully dealing with the time demands of business, work and family.
Then in Toronto, I ‘ve
been working with Enterprise Toronto to celebrate women and technology and we
have pulled together a panel of women who have either started a technology
business, are teaching code to women or embraced technology and introduced IT
strategies to enhance business.
Being held on March 11 at
MaRS, we are not only being blessed with some words of wisdom from CEO, Ilse
Treurnicht but will be immersed in an environment that promotes innovation.
The theme this year
globally for International Women’s Day is Gaining Momentum and both events fit
so well with that theme. When you think
about it, developing resilience and coping strategies, helps you move ahead and
the male dominated IT industry is seeing more and more women starting technology businesses.
We truly are gaining
momentum and in the words from Helen Reddy’s song – I am Woman – we are strong and invincible.