International Women’s Day will be celebrated this year on March 8. While we have so many obscure holidays to celebrate from National Donut Day to Secretary’s Day, I am writing this piece to lift International Women’s Day out of irrelevant obscurity.
At first glance, I thought of International Women’s Day as a brief opportunity to be exposed to the role of women in other cultures. I thought of it as a day to celebrate women all over the world like International Night at my kid’s school. But when I really pursued International Women’s Day (IWD), it is much more than just a celebration of wearing cultural costumes and eating traditional food from other countries.
IWD is a specific day dedicated to the advancement of women worldwide. The theme this year is “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” This is a call to action demanding equal rights, power and opportunities for all where no one is left behind. The “International” part of IWD meaning that it is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day is also meant to be a call for action to accelerate women’s equality.
International Women’s Day has been celebrated for over 100 years. Since 1911, IWD is for anyone who cares about women’s equality and celebrates women’s achievements. It is about raising awareness of discrimination. Without going into a dry and boring history lesson, we all know that in the early 1900s, women had little to no rights to work, vote, be trained, hold public office and experienced severe discrimination in any effort to do anything outside of their customary role as a wife, mother, and homemaker. IWD was created to campaign for women’s rights and to forge a pathway of equality for women, not just in the United States, but around the world.
IWD aims to celebrate women’s achievments, raise awareness, mobilize action, and foster solidarity. Check out some of these Houston area events where you can mingle, network, be inspired, and continue working torwards womens presence in all aspects of life, business, government, and science.
- International Women’s Day Vibrant Excellence Event, Saturday, March 8, 3-6p at LIV Houston 108 Main Street
- Heels in High Places for International Women’s Day, Saturday, March 8, 2-4p at SheSpace 2799 Katy Freeway, Suite 250
- IWDHTX Fest, Saturday, March 8, 8:30a to 4:30p, at Our Lady of the Lake University, 600 North Sam Houston Parkway
- 2025 International Womens Day 1M, 5K, 10K, 13.1, 26.2 virtual run (or walk), March 7, 7p at home
- Shakti Day 2025 – International Women’s Day Houston, Saturday, March 8, 2-5p at the International Trade Center, 11122 Bellaire Blvd
- 14th Annual Rise to the Top, Friday, March 7, 10:30a to 1:30p at Hilton Americas 1600 Lamar St.
- POST International Women’s Day Celebration, Sunday, March 9, 11a to 8p, 401 Franklin Street
You can even donate to impactful charities including:
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), the largest international youth movement dedicated to girls and young women, supporting over 8.9 million girls across 153 countries and is an IWD Charity of Choice since 2007. T
The Nomi Network helps combat human trafficking by creating pathways to safe employment and empowering women and girls to break cycles of slavery in their families and communities.
Catalyst is a global nonprofit working with companies around the world to build workplaces that work for women. They’re a trusted resource for knowledge on gender, leadership and inclusive talent management and is an IWD Charity of Choice since 2017.
Women have come a long way from the early 1900s. We are business owners, police officers, soldiers, pilots, farmers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, CEOs, and government leaders. Why do we still need to encourage women in all walks of life? We made it, didn’t we? Logically, women had a late start in the game due to the restriction of rights, training, education, and voting. So it only makes sense to promote efforts, programs, projects, and initiatives to elevate women for success since we are trying to catch up to equality.
I have heard that it is acceptable that women are only a percentage of business and government leaders. Some people also agree that a pay gap makes sense since women have to deal with a work/family balance so they can’t be as productive or as ambitious as their male counterparts. Clearly, while we have gained so much, there is still work to be done. Attitudes toward women are changing, but misogyny continues to thrive in social media where people can hide behind a screen and spread hate and violence towards women. We also can’t forget about our sisters in other countries that are still restricted from basic rights such as education and voting.
There are women with seats at the executive table, but they are still only a small percentage of the people in the room. The ones that are doing the talking and negotiating are male. The ones that are arguing, accusing, breaking cease fires, and declaring war are male, and they always have been. The archaic ideology that women can’t be tough, that we are too emotional for the job was prevalent in the past and continues to leave us out of many positions of power today. We can’t say for sure that if women were in power at this very moment, that there would be more diplomacy, less war, cheaper eggs, adequately staffed national parks, and a near elimination of measles outbreaks, but we can continue forward progress and encourage our women with strength, intelligence, fortitude, and understanding that they can be at the helm one day to make a difference.
