Celebrating International Women’s Day

*Happy International Women’s Day! Photo credit: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/SelfieCards*

As we celebrate International Women’s Day around the world today, I feel confused. Should we be celebrating? In the past year:

Nearly 3 million women have left the workforce in the U.S. since the pandemic started. That’s about equivalent to the population of the state of Kansas.
We are at a 33 year low in women’s employment.
It’s so bad that the New York Times recently documented the plight of working moms during the pandemic in a special series called “The Primal Scream”.

It feels bittersweet that the joy of celebrating the social, economic, culture, and political achievements of women is juxtaposed against the reality of what the pandemic has done to erase progress made towards closing the gender gap.

If we really want to see change, we can’t be content with posting “Happy International Women’s Day!” to social media and calling it a day. Instead, let’s truly honor women this International Women’s Day by taking action to accelerate gender parity. Here’s what you can do to #ChooseToChallenge:

Through Your Words

Follow the MBA Framework. As I wrote about in a previous post, anyone can be an ally by:

Being a mentor
Belonging to an interest-oriented group
Advocating for diversity

To accelerate gender parity, consider advocating for a pay equity audit in your company. Women earn 80 cents for every dollar that men earn. If you don’t know how to start, this whitepaper on how to advocate for pay equity analysis can help. As Dr. Kellie McElhaney, founder of the Center for Equality, Gender and Leadership at UC Berkeley, said, “There is no way to feel more included than to be paid equal to the person sitting next to me.”

Through Your Work

One of the reasons I chose to work at Care.com was its purpose. As a working mom, I could easily relate to how critical being able to find care for loved ones is for families. I felt motivated knowing that my work helped to increase economic opportunity for women by enabling moms to go to work and providing job opportunities to caregivers.

Similarly, Ellpha co-founders Stephanie Creff (CEO of Ellpha) and Brigitte Ricou-Bellan (Ellpha Advisor) shared a vision of making gender equality a reality. As long-time veterans in the technology industry, they saw an opportunity to harness AI to identify hidden bias in organizations. Over the last year, they have developed and piloted their Bias Detection Model with clients to deliver change. They will launch Ellpha's SaaS solution this year that integrates with organizations throughout the Talent Management cycle to limit bias and enable diverse talents to thrive, develop, and belong.

To accelerate gender parity, look for opportunities to contribute your experiences and skills in a mission-aligned company.

Through Your Lead

Women have continued breaking glass ceilings, despite the challenges of the past year.

Alyssa Nakken, an assistant coach with the San Francisco Giants, was the first female coach on staff in Major League Baseball and the first to coach on the field during a major league game.
Sarah Fuller was a goalkeeper on Vanderbilt University’s Women’s Soccer team. When the football team needed a kicker, she stepped up to the challenge and became the first female to play in a Power 5 college football game.
Chloe Zhao made history as the first Asian female and only second female ever to be awarded best director by the Golden Globes for her work on Nomadland.
And of course, Kamala Harris was the first woman, first Black, and first Asian-American to be sworn in to the office of Vice President of the United States.

To accelerate gender parity, lean into your superpowers to kick a** at what you do and be a role model for others.

* * *

✋✋✋ Join me in celebrating this International Women’s Day by taking action to accelerate gender parity. Happy International Women’s Day! #ChooseToChallenge ✋✋✋

🗞️ Subscribe to my newsletter

I write about once a week about topics like product management, design thinking, becoming a better leader, and personal branding. By subscribing to my newsletter, you’ll get these insights emailed right to your inbox every time I post.

📹 Reflect with me on Friday Flashes

Friday Flashes is a series of quick one-minute videos that introduces a topic of reflection for the week. Each prompt is product-focused and ties back to one of the ten disciplines in the Product Decagon.

🛒 Get your copy of The Productive Product Manager

The Productive Product Manager is a guided journal that combines the weekly reflection with weekly review and other goodies. You can see the inside of the journal in the Friday Flashes announcement video. Don't worry - the journal is not dated, so it's ok if you don't start at Week 1.