#9 THE WORKPLACE: Why you shouldn't celebrate International Women's Day at work

This year's International Women's Day theme is #AccelerateAction and a call for collectively accelerating quality through economic empowerment. But before your organisation orders cupcakes with purple frosting or plans a "women in leadership" panel discussion that will be forgotten by next week, I invite you to consider a provocative question:

Should your company be celebrating International Women's Day at all?

The answer might be no, and that's okay.

International Women's Day shouldn't be a performative checkbox on your corporate calendar. If your organisation isn't genuinely committed to meaningful, measurable change for women in the workplace, perhaps it's more honest to skip the celebration altogether.

The problem with performance without progress

Every March, a familiar rhythm unfolds across the world. Companies change their logos to purple, host special events, and share inspirational social media posts featuring notable women throughout history. Executives give speeches about the importance of women's contributions. Email inboxes flood with special International Women's Day promotions.

And then March 9th arrives. The decorations come down. The panels end. The social media returns to business as usual.

Meanwhile, the fundamental challenges women face in workplaces remain unchanged:

Making a spotlight on Europe:

• Women across the EU earn on average 13% less than men (with significant variations from 3.3% in Luxembourg to 21.7% in Estonia)
• Only 7.9% of board chairs and 8.5% of CEOs across EU member states are women
• European women spend an average of 13 hours more per week on unpaid care work than men
• 45% of women in the EU have experienced some form of sexual harassment, and an unsavoury amount of that happens at work
• Women with migrant backgrounds face compounded barriers from both xenophobia and sexism

When organisations celebrate International Women's Day without addressing these realities, the celebration itself becomes part of the problem, a convenient distraction that creates the illusion of progress while maintaining the status quo.

Three reasons to skip International Women's Day Celebrations (unless you're ready for real action)

1. Symbolic support without systemic change is harmful

There's a term in European policy discussions for what happens when companies loudly proclaim support for women while failing to implement meaningful policies that actually help them: gender-washing.

Like its cousin, greenwashing (environmentally-friendly marketing without environmental action), gender-washing uses women's empowerment as a marketing tool while avoiding the hard work of structural change. This approach doesn't just fail to help, it actively harms progress by creating the false impression that problems are being addressed.

Consider a company that hosts an elaborate International Women's Day celebration while maintaining policies that disadvantage women. Perhaps they've not conducted a pay transparency audit (now required in many EU countries), have no parental leave provisions beyond the national minimum, or maintain a culture where harassment complaints are routinely minimised. Their celebration becomes not just meaningless but actively deceptive, suggesting commitment to values that their daily operations contradict.

This disconnect between symbolic support and operational reality doesn't go unnoticed. Women in these organisations receive a clear message: The resulting cynicism erodes trust and engagement, ultimately making genuine progress even harder to achieve.

If your organisation isn't prepared to align its policies and practices with the values International Women's Day represents, honesty requires acknowledging that gap rather than papering over it with purple banners and inspirational quotes from Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf.

2. If you won't implement transparent pay practices, don't celebrate women's "Value"

Of all the inconsistencies between International Women's Day rhetoric and workplace realities, perhaps none is more glaring than the persistent gender pay gap across European countries.

Many companies that enthusiastically celebrate women's "invaluable contributions" systematically undervalue those contributions in the most literal way possible: by paying women less than men for comparable work, despite EU-wide equal pay directives dating back to 1975.

The European gender pay gap isn't a myth or a misunderstanding. It's a well-documented reality across the continent. While the specific numbers vary by sector, country, and methodology, the pattern is consistent: women earn less than their male counterparts, even when controlling for factors like experience, education, and job title.

This disparity doesn't just harm individual women's financial well-being. It compromises organisational performance by:

• Signalling to high-performing women that their contributions are less valued
• Creating turnover costs when women leave for more equitable environments
• Damaging employer brand and recruitment efforts
• Placing organisations at legal risk as EU pay transparency laws become more stringent

If your organisation hasn't conducted a comprehensive pay equity analysis under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, created transparent compensation bands, or implemented concrete plans to address identified disparities, International Women's Day celebrations ring hollow. They become an uncomfortable reminder of the gap between aspirational values and operational realities.

The alternative isn't abandoning women's advancement altogether. It's acknowledging where you actually stand, communicating transparently about current shortcomings, and using International Women's Day as an opportunity to commit to specific, measurable improvements, not as a celebration of already-achieved equality.

3. One-day recognition cannot replace year-round representation

Perhaps the most fundamental problem with International Women's Day celebrations is their inherent limitation: they compress attention to gender equity into a single day or week, implicitly suggesting that women's concerns can be adequately addressed through periodic recognition rather than continuous representation.

Consider how many companies approach International Women's Day:

• Special events highlight women's voices, which are then unheard in decision-making meetings the rest of the year
• Women's leadership is celebrated, while promotion pathways remain disproportionately accessible to men
• Women's historical contributions are acknowledged, while their current innovations are overlooked or appropriated

This approach fundamentally misunderstands the nature of systemic inequality. Gender bias isn't a discrete problem that can be solved through occasional attention; it's woven into organisational structures, decision-making processes, and cultural assumptions. Addressing it requires sustained focus and integrated approaches across all aspects of organisational life.

When International Women's Day becomes an organisation's primary vehicle for engaging with gender equity, it inevitably fails to deliver meaningful change. It becomes a containment strategy, a way to channel legitimate concerns about equity into a manageable, time-limited format that doesn't threaten existing power structures.

What meaningful action looks like: Prerequisites for authentic celebration

If this critique resonates with you, you might be wondering: what would justify an International Women's Day celebration? What actions would make such recognition authentic rather than performative?

While there's no universal checklist, organisations genuinely committed to gender equity typically demonstrate several key characteristics:

1. Data-driven understanding of current reality

Before you can meaningfully celebrate progress, you need to understand honestly where you stand. European organisations serious about gender equity:

• Comply fully with EU Pay Transparency Directive requirements, going beyond mere compliance to address underlying inequities
• Track promotion rates and timelines across gender lines, with attention to intersectionality
• Measure representation at all organisational levels against national demographic benchmarks
• Analyse performance evaluation outcomes for potential bias
• Collect qualitative data through Works Councils, employee resource groups, and anonymous feedback channels

These organisations don't just gather data, they share it transparently, even when it reveals shortcomings. Their International Women's Day communications acknowledge both progress and persistent challenges, grounding celebration in reality rather than aspiration.

2. Structural solutions to structural problems

Genuinely supportive organisations recognise that individual women don't need to be "fixed", systems and structures do. They implement concrete policies like:

• Standardised, transparent compensation frameworks that align with the EU Pay Transparency Directive
• Formal sponsorship programs connecting women with influential advocates
• Parental leave policies that encourage the equitable sharing of childcare responsibilities between parents
• Clear advancement criteria that minimise subjective judgment
• Robust processes for addressing harassment and discrimination
• Intentional succession planning that ensures diverse candidate pools following corporate governance standards

These organisations don't just encourage women to "lean in" to flawed systems; they redesign those systems to fairly value and reward women's contributions.

3. Leadership accountability for measurable outcomes

Organisations committed to gender equity don't treat it as a side project for their diversity team; they integrate it into core business objectives with the same rigour they apply to financial targets. This means:

• Setting specific, time-bound goals for improving representation, especially on Boards and Management levels
• Regularly reporting progress to boards, shareholders, and Works Councils
• Building equity considerations into strategic planning processes
• Holding managers accountable for both diversity outcomes and inclusive behaviors
• Integrating gender equality into CSR and ESG reporting frameworks

When leaders face consequences for falling short on equity commitments, just as they would for missing financial targets, those commitments transform from aspirational statements to operational priorities.

4. Year-round engagement with women's perspectives

Organisations that genuinely value women don't need a special day to hear their voices, they integrate women's perspectives into decision-making processes throughout the year by:

• Ensuring diverse representation in key meetings and on influential committees
• Deliberately creating space for less dominant voices to be heard
• Crediting women for their ideas and contributions
• Engaging men as allies in creating more inclusive cultures
• Building relationships with European women's organisations beyond one-day partnerships

For these organisations, International Women's Day isn't an anomaly, it's a natural extension of values they live every day.

A better approach to International Women's Day

If your organisation isn't where it should be on gender equity, and most aren't, that doesn't mean you should ignore International Women's Day entirely. But it does mean reimagining how you engage with it.

Instead of a celebration implying achievements not yet realised, consider approaching International Women's Day as an opportunity for:

Honest assessment: Use the occasion to transparently communicate where your organisation stands on key equity metrics, acknowledging both progress and shortcomings.

Authentic commitment: Announce specific, measurable actions your organisation will take in the coming year to advance gender equity, with accountability mechanisms to ensure follow-through.

Meaningful education: Rather than celebratory events, create opportunities for employees at all levels to deepen their understanding of the systemic barriers women face and develop skills to address them.

Expanded listening: Create forums for women to share their experiences and insights about workplace challenges, with processes to incorporate that feedback into policy and practice.

This approach transforms International Women's Day from a performative celebration to a meaningful catalyst for change, a day when organisations don't just say they value women, but demonstrate that commitment through honest reflection and concrete action.

Accelerate action

International Women's Day at its best isn't about celebration at all, it's about transformation. It's a call to reimagine workplaces where equity isn't a special initiative but a fundamental operating principle.

Whether your organisation celebrates International Women's Day this year is less important than how you approach gender equity every day. If purple decorations and special events align with sustained, structural commitment to women's advancement, they can be meaningful expressions of authentic values. If they mask inaction or substitute for more difficult changes, they become obstacles to the very progress they claim to champion.

As March 8th approaches, I challenge organisations to ask not "How should we celebrate International Women's Day?" but rather "Have we earned the right to celebrate it?" And if the answer is no, to use that recognition not as a reason for cynicism, but as motivation for the real work that needs to begin on March 9th.

Ultimately, the best way to honor International Women's Day is to make it obsolete, to create workplaces where gender equity is so deeply embedded in organisational DNA that we no longer need special days to remind us of its importance.

Thank you for reading till the end! If you liked this week's post, share and discuss.

Reach out if I can be of any support and thank you for a meaningful celebration this year of the #InternationalWomenDay and striving towards Fair Cultures !