Celebrating Women: Everything You Want to Know About International Women's Day
"There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish."
This quote by Michelle Obama sums up a significant theme about International Women's Day—celebrating women and their many goals, successes, and accomplishments.
International Women's Day is right around the corner (it lands annually on March 8th). Now's the perfect time to familiarize yourself with the history of this occasion, check out some new data about Female Founders, as well as understand how you can join in celebrating.
The History of International Women's Day
The first IWD gathering occurred in 1911, over a century ago.
In the early 1900s, women began to publicly display their frustration with oppression and inequality. They started to speak out, campaigning for global change. In 1911, the first official IWD was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, bringing out more than one million women and men.
The day sought for a women's right to vote, hold public office, end discrimination, and more.
To this day, IWD is a globally-recognized day that celebrates unity, advocacy, and action, in any available capacity. This call for gender parity is celebrated worldwide.
IWD Quotes
What are some great ways to spread the word?
Perhaps you can consider updating your Facebook status with any of the following quotes:
- "I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life." -Maya Angelou
- "Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights." -Hillary Clinton
- "We need to live in a culture that values and respects and looks up to and idolizes women as much as men." -Emma Watson
Find any quote that resonates with you and share it!
This year's theme is 'I Am Generation Equality: Realizing Women's Rights,' which is aligned with the UN's new, multi generational campaign. While sharing one of these quotes online, be sure to add 2020's hashtag #generationequality.
Three New Insights on Female Founders
Since we are a female founded business ourselves, we are very interested in how parity is progressing for Women in business, particularly for Founders.
Female-founded companies still see just a sliver of the big financing pie.
In the last decade, the share of invested dollars that went to companies founded by Women stayed flat at 3%.
This is just one insight from a new CrunchBase report on the landscape for female founders.
Here are 3 more:
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Companies founded by women only raised significantly less than those founded by men only. An average of 13% less
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Startups with at least 1 female founder is growing. In 2019, it was 20%, compared to 10% in 2009. And on average, companies co-founded by men and women raised more than those founded by either group alone
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Also growing: Unicorn companies with a female founder. These are companies that reached a $1B market value. There were 21 in 2019, compared to just 5 in 2016
How You Can Succeed in Celebrating Women
We can show appreciation and support to any Woman in our lives. Consider reaching out to any woman that's touched your life. Let them know how they have impacted you!
Join a local march, learn a new skill, share your success stories with others, or have a conversation with an inspirational Woman in your life.
Nothing you do will be considered too little.
Show Your Support!
Celebrating women is something that should be done every day. International Women's Day only aims to raise awareness, allowing each of us to know why we should celebrate women, as well as how to do so.
This noble cause provides purpose in our lives—something we could all use more of.