International Women’s Day (IWD) is an important annual event for celebrating all of your employees who identify as women. In this article, we give a quick recap of the day’s history and how to embrace its sentiment every day of the year.

Quick facts:

• IWD is celebrated every year on the 8th of March with a theme that reflects the current moment.
• IWD can be a meaningful opportunity to host events, launch new benefits or simply amplify the voices of women throughout your organisation.
• Ensuring you’re supporting women in your business, every day of the year, is vital to gender parity within the workplace.

What is International Women’s Day?

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated annually on the 8th of March. A day of global signification, IWD celebrates and champions the social, economic and political achievements of women everywhere.

Each IWD has a theme that reflects current struggles or aspirations for women around the world. The 2024 theme will be #inspireinclusion.

History and significance 

IWD was first recognised in 1977 by the United Nations. It has its origins in early Twentieth-century labour movements, which facilitated some of the first organised strikes for female workers. 

Today, it has evolved into a growing international women’s rights movement that underscores the work that is yet to be done for global gender equity. 

Why IWD matters for your organisation

IWD is an incredibly important event for any organisation’s internal events calendar. It provides a meaningful opportunity to demonstrate your organisation’s commitment to fostering gender equity within the workplace, year-round. 

By celebrating the achievements of female colleagues and leadership, organisations can foster an environment of support, inclusion and respect for women within their workplaces. This is far from trivial and has been proven to improve female talent retention and contribute to meaningful diversity and inclusion initiatives. 

Representation matters at all levels of an organisation. Workplaces that actively seek to champion their female employees can inspire future generations of female leaders who can help build a more inclusive and diverse workforce. 

Year-round female health initiatives 

Any IWD events should be supported with year-round initiatives that support your female employees. Reproductive health benefits are fast becoming a cornerstone of any progressive employee wellbeing support.

We believe that knowledge is power and hosting education sessions for your team centred around awareness days helps to educate everyone across the business, whilst bringing recognition to important issues. This can in turn foster your organisation’s culture whilst making your employees feel seen and supported. Here are some key awareness days to build into your internal events calendar. 

From family-forming to menopause in the workplace, we deliver specialist CPD-accredited education sessions for the entire workforce that can help to empower your people. 

Don’t just take our word for it .

“Dr Helen and the Hertility team did a phenomenal job in educating our workforce on all things menopause related. It was done in such an approachable and engaging way.” – Flora Kong, the Co Chair of The One Gender Equality Network at Dentsu commented on the impact of our education delivered to Dentsu employees. 

Get in touch with our team to learn how we can support you with your journey to becoming a Reproductively Responsible™ employer.