One day I will...

Last month we celebrated March 8 as the International Women's Day. I opened Google and the Doodle of the day was a video asking women all over the world to finish the sentence, "One day I will..." And like the day itself, the video was a celebration of women's lives and achievements, and a call to action to make their lives better.

Every year since 2001 International Women's Day has a sponsored site and an annual theme. The theme this year is #PledgeForParity, which encourages individuals and organizations to sign a 'parity pledge' to commit promoting gender equality in daily life and workplace.

Now we all know what gender parity and equality means. What I would like to talk about is why we need it.

To attract top talent. A workplace that is equally appealing for both women and men will provide us access to the entire talent pool. If not then there is a risk of losing the best talent to competitors.

To reduce expenses. As both men and women are likely to remain with an organization they view as fair, employee turnover for an organization can be reduced, and hence also the expense incurred on recruitment.

To improve productivity and competitiveness. The World Economic Forum has found a strong correlation between a country’s competitiveness and how it educates and uses its female talent. It is now up to us how we together work towards that.

To avoid wasting resources. As a nation we all know that gender inequality still exists, but not only are we missing out on the important contributions women make to the economy, but also wasting the years of investment in the higher education of women.

The power to enhance our individual wellbeing, and of our company and society, lies in not just the hands of a select few leaders, but each and every one of us. In our own small and unique ways we can together try and bring up the women we work with every day.

Let's make their 'one day' into 'today' not just on March 8th, not just this month, but every day of the year.