In the early 20th century, International Women’s Day began to be celebrated on March 8th as a day commemorating the working woman as well as equal rights and suffragist movements around the world. As more countries granted women the right to vote during the 1900s, observances of the day became more widespread. In 1975, the United Nations undertook a more active role in the observance of International Women’s Day. Today, the holiday is observed in many countries across the world. Typically, it dually celebrates achievements made by women while bringing awareness to how much more work still needs to be done towards advancing equal rights and opportunities.

The World Conference on Women in 1995 introduced a resolution on the equality of men and women. This resolution was the Beijing Declaration, which was adopted by the UN. In the years following the conference, the UN has assigned each year a Women’s Empowerment theme. The corresponding theme for 2020 is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights,” marking the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

To us at Consilio, International Women’s Day is a day to both celebrate our employees’ diverse strengths while recognizing the importance of including individuals from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and ideas. A culture of inclusion promotes the professional and personal growth of our employees and enables us to cultivate their unique strengths. We strive to reflect this sentiment through our Diversity & Inclusion commitment as well as our other initiatives such as our Women in Technology blog series.

We have spoken with several of our employees from around the world what International Women’s Day means to them. We have included their answers below: