From the international Women's Day Website:
International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
International Women's Day (IWD) has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Prior to this the Socialist Party of America, United Kingdom's Suffragists and Suffragettes, and further groups campaigned for women's equality.
Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.
Here at WomanUP!® we are celebrating women every day and working toward representative parity in our industry at c-suite levels. But International Women's Day is a special moment to highlight achievement of our members and our industry.
In the last half century, women have gone from an outlier in agency offices to representing a full 60% of all real estate agents.
Home ownership by single female-headed households is at 42% in California (as of 2014). (2)
Women-led businesses have increased 58% in the last 2 years, compared to the national growth of only 12%.(3) That's massive!
Cheers to that, eh?
But real talk for a minute. These are great stats, but our data? We just aren't seeing the same growth in representation at the brokerage level that is present in other industries. We have a lot of work to do, yet.
Here's 5 ways we can celebrate International Women's Day this year.
1) Develop a business relationship with a female artisan in your own community. Think bakers you can contract with for open house or office snack drops, female-owned florists to deliver monthly flowers for your agents, or artists you can feature on your office walls in a rotating gallery- you get beautiful original art, and the artist has an opportunity to sell to a wider audience!
2) Visit your local bookstore and pick up a new book. Ask the owner for a recommendation for a new international author to expand your worldview! From the magical realism of Chilean-American Isabel Allende to Turkey's bestselling Elif Safak or Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, there is a rich world of voices out there to discover.
3) Donate your time to a local charity that supports educational opportunities for young women. As a local business owner yourself, you have a lot of knowledge to share with your community. Find an initiative that makes you tingle and send a note- many organizations have volunteer forms you can fill out, and offering your expertise or simply your time and hands will make a difference in the lives of the women of your community.
4) See a movie with a female protagonist or by a female director (or both!). Entertainment not only responds to but can be a leader in cultural shifts, and heading to the movie theaters to support female-led projects is a strong message to production studios that women's stories are worth their time and money. We've got Captain Marvel and Miss Bala on our list of currently-playing female-directed and female-starring movies. Can't wait!
5) Invite your Business besties to register for WomanUP!® 2019 when tickets go on sale on Monday, March 11! There's nothing like a community of driven women coming together to effect change in the world. We are so proud of the BOLD MOVES we've seen in the #womanuptribe since we founded the movement 2 years ago.
(1) http://scorecard.prosperitynow.org/2016/measure/homeownership-by-gender
(2) https://www.car.org/-/media/CAR/Documents/Your-CAR/PDF/CAR-Women-Report--Page-Online-FINAL.pdf%20?la=en&hash=CCEE4ED327C63A8372D0EB35B85AC44D69BA5973
(3) https://about.americanexpress.com/files/doc_library/file/2018-state-of-women-owned-businesses-report.pdf