Yes we can!

Today we recognize and celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world. It’s good to see the rising tide of change and advancement around the many topics of importance to women. Equal opportunity. Equal pay. Equal rights.

Even in the more progressive countries, discrimination happens each day in plain view. According to my friends over at a Google, in 1975, during International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day on March 8. Recognizing the need to have a continued focus on this issue to advocate for and facilitate real change, in 1977 the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace.

Bob Marly’s lyrics famously say “I don’t want no peace, I want equal rights...”. While I am not advocating violence in any way as a means for change, I am recognizing that the issues of equal rights for women is fundamental to all of us, not just women, and that despite the progress that society has made, there remains much to be done. The progress of the past does not exonerate us from the need to look and head and press for further change.

While parity for women’s rights has evolved some areas, most notable in the Nordic counties, other areas remain stuck under oppressive regimes that suppress the rights of women and other groups they marginalize by labelling them. Using religion, legislation, tradition or any other excuse to deny women or anyone else the opportunity to choose their own level engagement in society is simply unacceptable. 

In case you haven't noticed, it’s a four-alarm fire out there. The world needs the best and brightest minds focused on addressing the many urgent needs we are facing today. Pick your topic and you will quickly identify urgent issues that need comprehensive and lasting solutions. How can we decide to value any thought or idea based on anything other than its intrinsic value. How can we allow people to weaponize gender and attack other people with the rhetoric of oppression.

The answer is of course we cannot. We never should have but we did. And in far too many places we still do. But loving and respecting women doesn’t mean we need to hate and vilify men. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Instead we need to engage together to facilitate change and show a better way. 

Yes, I know we have come a long way, at least in some places. But the progress of the past does not exonerate us from the need to look ahead and press for further change. I want to salute the people who are standing up to make a difference everywhere. People are watching, everyone is watching. And actions speak louder than words. There are people taking actions to create a better future for women, for us all.

I am involved with and support the Cartier Women’s Initiative, a terrific program created by Cartier, INSEAD and McKinsey to encourage and support women entrepreneurs around the world. It’s breath-taking to see the innovation and creativity being advanced through this forum and humbling to see the women who are standing up in some of the world's more oppressive regions, sometimes under difficult circumstances, to be agents for change and advancement. The finalists for 2019 were just announced, I invite you to take look.

But you don’t need to do something grand to be a positive force for change. Yes you can, we all can, make a difference. Your actions each day - how you treat people, what decisions you make - are silently making a statement for all to see. Do something, anything to make progress. Even the smallest action can have a big impact - sometimes we just don’t see it.

I look forward to the day when Google talks about International Women's Day in past tense, because the aims and goals we so desperately need have been achieved. I look forward to the day when we are all living in a world where people are valued and respected for who they are, not what they are. 

Like Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream...”