A World of Contributions: Celebrating International Women’s Day

The United Nations established International Women’s Day in 1975 to raise awareness about gender equality and recognize the achievements of women around the world. I encourage you to take a moment, right now, to consider what the world would be like without the accomplishments of women. Here are just a few:

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery, but escaped to freedom with her infant daughter in 1826. She became a leading and fierce voice in the fight for abolition, civil and women’s rights. Her 1851 speech, “Ain’t I a Women” challenged notions of racial and gender inferiority and inequality. 

Work led by Jane Addams in the early and mid 1900s continues to impact our world today. She sponsored legislation to abolish child labor, establish juvenile courts, limit the hours of working women, recognize labor unions, make school attendance mandatory and ensure safe working conditions in factories. Addams was also the second woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Many knew Hedy Lamarr in the mid 1900s as a beautiful movie star. What they didn’t know was that her brilliance led to a technique called “frequency hopping” which disguised radio transmissions by making the signal jump between channels in a prearranged pattern. This groundbreaking work was a precursor to wireless technologies we use today including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Fast forward to today and we are surrounded by women in government, health care, science, business, education, technology and finance whose breakthrough thinking, vision and leadership continue to shape the world for the better. However, if we lived in a gender equal world, many more women could be among them.

This is why International Women’s Day is so important for all of us - including men. This year’s theme focuses on gender equality and encourages all of us to imagine a gender equal world. I’m proud that Kane is a new member of the United Nations Global Compact. We are committed to helping the UN achieve its gender equity goals through our own work, our support and our advancement of women in our workplace. 

There’s work to do everywhere, including in the United States. The group Equal Measures 2030, a collaboration of national, regional, and global leaders released its 2022 SDG Gender Index, noting that the U.S. now ranks 38th in the world when it comes to gender equality. The Index tracks the empowerment of women and girls across a variety of metrics — from health to education to workplace rights. Thirty-eighth on the list puts the U.S. below most of the world’s wealthier countries. 

Our own Kane Insights report revealed in 2021 that working women in Wisconsin faced tremendous challenges during the pandemic. Half of the women we surveyed reported that the stress, lack of communication and support from their employers, pay inequities and other challenges put them in positions to think seriously about leaving their employers. That’s 25% higher than the national average. Nearly half of Gen Z (ages 18 to 29) respondents in our survey reported that they do not feel their employers value women as equally as men. That’s 20% higher than what women ages 30+ felt. 

Working toward gender equality is the right thing for all of us. Our economies thrive when women are educated and employed at equal rates to men, according to this report from Bloomberg, “Global economic growth could get a $20 trillion boost if women are educated at the same levels as men and hold the same number of jobs ….”. Studies from Gallup and the Harvard Business Review also show that companies perform better when women are engaged, and when we lead.

A few years ago, when my son Kyle was 13 years old, we were heading home from soccer practice with a car filled with his buddies. We drove through a construction zone where a sign said, “Caution! Men working.” I hardly noticed the sign, but Kyle shouted from the backseat, “Hey! That sign should say, ‘Women working! They’re leaving women out!’” 

Kyle and so many in his generation are lightyears ahead in recognizing gender inequality and speaking out against it. We can all take a cue from that awareness, let’s imagine a world with equal contributions from women and then ask ourselves what we can do to make it a reality.