International Women’s Day is a Double-Edged Sword
I know this is probably one of the hundreds of posts that you’ll see today about International Women’s Day (IWD). This is a day I love to celebrate. At the same time, it’s frustrating that we only celebrate women one day a year. What about the other 364 days of the year? IWD is a double-edged sword because it celebrates the achievements and empowerment of women, but also reminds us of the many challenges and inequalities that women still face in various aspects of life.
Throughout my career I have gained a deep understanding of the challenges faced by women around the world, especially through my lived experience as a female CEO, business and nonprofit leader, engineer, board member, and now also a female entrepreneur and founder of Catapult For Change. As I progressed in my career, there were fewer and fewer women peers around me. Many of my colleagues dropped out of the engineering industry to raise families or to avoid the pressures of the management track. There were more and more times when I was the only woman on the team or in the room. In some of the boards I have served on recently, I was the only woman. The nonprofits I have worked for have a greater percentage of women employed than in engineering — but this is not reflected on the management team, which often has more men than women.
Nevertheless, while celebrating this iconic day, I am reminded of the progress we have made since IWD’s inception in 1911. It was a movement born out of the labor struggle for women’s equal rights. The core principles that underpin IWD, as outlined on the IWD website, resonate strongly with me: celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness about discrimination, and taking action to foster gender parity.
The Data
Undoubtedly, significant strides have been made for women since 1911, but there is still a considerable journey ahead to realize global workforce equality. It is disheartening to note that women still earn approximately 20% less than their male counterparts globally. As I reflect on IWD this year, my appreciation for its purpose deepens. I am currently navigating the entrepreneurial landscape with my new venture and I am acutely aware of the unique obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs. In the United States alone, although women initiated 47% of new businesses in 2022, women-owned businesses represent a mere 21% overall. Moreover, the statistical representation of women as CEOs paints a bleak picture — only 10% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, and women occupy only 5% of CEO positions across all companies. Worst of all — women startups only receive 2% of the available funding.
Celebrating IWD and remembering a career-defining moment
Today, I had the privilege of participating in an IWD panel with Margaret Rogers and Tiffany Lentz, moderated by Vikki Costello, at Pariveda, a respected strategy and technology consulting firm that recently became a B Corp. The discussion centered around celebrating IWD, highlighting the benefits of being employed by a B Corp, and the unique attributes that define the ethos and culture of Pariveda. One of the questions to the panel was an example of the best career advice you ever received. I am fortunate to have had many amazing mentors. This is one piece of advice that I have tried to live by:
During our panel discussion, we were also asked to share a career-defining moment as a working woman. I opened up about my personal struggle with parental leave as an adoptive parent in 2006. My experience shed light on the glaring disparity in the corporate support offered to biological vs. adoptive parents. While my first child’s arrival resulted in a relatively lengthy maternity leave period as he was my biological baby, my second child’s adoption left me with only three days of paid leave — an inequity that left me feeling angry and distraught. What about time for bonding and attachment with my new baby? This was only possible outside work hours, and work hours were in the office. Unpaid leave was not an option as I was the working parent. Despite my efforts to rally fellow adoptive parents within the large company I worked for, our plea for revised adoption benefits went unanswered.
Years later, when I served as the CEO of Water For People, I made it a priority to review and refine our parental leave policy. I am proud to share that we instituted a progressive policy that grants leave to either parent, regardless of whether the child is biological or adopted. This provision, in addition to standard medical disability leave, is something I am proud of. While this change may seem small in scale, it holds significant importance for working parents navigating how to balance their jobs with starting a family.
Admiration and Recognition
I would like to take this IWD opportunity to express my admiration for a few of the many entrepreneurial women whose stories may be unknown to many. These trailblazers embodied courage and perseverance as they pursued their dreams and ambitions — often defying the status quo. I applaud and appreciate the pioneers such as Madam Walker, who revolutionized the hair product industry for women, as well as Annie Easley, an early coder at NASA and a staunch advocate against discrimination. Furthermore, I acknowledge the breakthrough achievements of today’s entrepreneurial women including Meena Sankaran, founder and CEO of KETOS — a leading water quality testing technology — and Sara Riazi, a tech forerunner at Vecteezy, a provider of stock photos and vector graphics. Finally, I commend Ella Tkach-Dreazen, the founder of Magna Consulting, whose military experience in the Israeli Defense Forces shaped her entrepreneurial journey, and her co-founding of KOIOS, a tech startup leveraging AI to empower publicly traded companies in analyzing retail investor sentiment.
The Future
While the road to achieving true gender equality may be long, I remain an unwavering optimist. I won’t give up my dream that we can collectively reshape our society into one that upholds gender parity in both norms and rights. The responsibility of driving change does not solely rest on the shoulders of women. It is crucial for enlightened men to question their own privileges and become allies in rewriting the rules to support the pursuit of equal rights and freedoms for women. Thankfully, I know many of these amazing allies, starting with my husband and two sons.
Together, with steady determination, we can create a future where equality flourishes and the potential of all individuals, regardless of gender, is fully realized. And then we won’t need to celebrate IWD anymore.
