First published on Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Last updated on Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The 8th of March marks International Women’s Day. A global day for acknowledging women’s achievements across society, culture and more. The day also works to highlight a gender equality around the globe.
The IWD theme for 2025 is #AccelerateAction. As an employer, it’s important to consider how you can celebrate International Women’s Day in your workplace, take action to promote diversity and inclusivity across your business.
To support you, we’ve combined some of our top tips, statistics, some inspiring words, as well as a free e-learning course.
What does accelerating action mean?
As with each IWD that passes, a new theme is introduced. This year the campaign theme is focused on the current rate of progress for full gender parity. Which is essentially achieving the goal of gender equality within society—to give everyone equal access to opportunities and resources regardless of gender.
In practice, this puts a big emphasis on current gender gaps in the workplace. Which includes unequal pay, employment opportunities, and a lack of representation for women in roles of leadership and management.
Promoting gender equality in the workplace is essential for the success and growth of your business. In fact, a wide range of studies into the topic show diverse teams lead to better business outcomes.
To accelerate action in your organization and to help work towards gender equality, it’s everyone’s responsibility to forge a more inclusive world for women and all employees.
Why does female representation matter?
Great progress has already been made with some huge Canadian brands having boards with 38% female representation (2024) Delta Hotels, Dollarama, CIBC and Sun Life.
Despite these strides of progress, there’s still a lot of work still to be done.
This is why representation is so important, not only for the success of women but for the success of your business. Promoting inclusivity can improve decision making, enhance workplace culture, and make the working environment an overall more enjoyable place to be for your staff.
At BrightHR our very own Chief International Growth and Marketing Officer, Thea Watson, was recently recognized for her leadership within the industry. Listed as one of The Top 50 Women Leaders in Software of 2024.
Gender equality in the workplace
It’s easy to turn a blind eye to the inequalities women face, especially in the workplace. Often male-dominated, recent decades have seen a greater push for change and greater representation of women in not just leadership roles but in typically male-dominated industries and positions.
The gender pay gap currently stands at around 17.1% with researchers expecting this to take around another 63 years to close. This is one of the biggest challenges currently facing women in the workplace. And despite a greater awareness of it, gender pay gaps still exist even in some of the Canada's largest businesses. As an employer, it’s important you make sure you’re up to date with the latest advice.
What’s more, examples of sexual harassment at work continue to feature in headlines. With some of the most recent allegations against Frank Stronach, founder of Magna international with allegtions dating as far back as 1977.
Taking action requires everyone, not just women, to lead the way in working towards achieving gender equality both inside and outside of the workplace.
So, how can you better support women in your workplace?
As an employer it’s essential to prioritize education. Educate yourself and all your staff on equality, diversity & inclusion. Making sure to create an inclusive and welcoming workplace culture that doesn’t push out aspiring talent. With BrightLearn you can try our free e-learning course on diversity & inclusion.
Plus, with a FREE practical guide to equality, inclusion, and dealing with discrimination you can keep up to date on a wide range of topics. Including how to foster inclusion in the workplace and addressing sensitive issues regarding gender equality.
