Technology and other companies around the world are again preparing to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 by celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while also raising awareness about women’s equality, lobbying for accelerated gender parity and fundraising for female-focused charities.
IWD has been celebrated for more than a century since the first gathering was held in 1911.
The campaign theme for IWD 2022 is #BreakTheBias, according to the IWD website, which says: “Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead. Knowing that bias exists isn’t enough. Action is needed to level the playing field.”
Purple, green and white are the colors of IWD, with purple signifying justice and dignity, green symbolizing hope and white representing purity, although the latter is a controversial concept. The colors originated with the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the U.K. in 1908.
No one organization is solely responsible for IWD, according to the annual day’s website, which notes that the day “belongs to all groups collectively everywhere” and quotes feminist Gloria Steinem, who said: “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist, nor to any one organization, but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”
Companies that have taken an active role in supporting IWD include tech firms Adobe, Google, Imply, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks and Sony.
“I have been in the technology field for over 20 years and have run the gambit of positions from on-the-ground engineering roles to organizational leadership positions,” according to Rachel Pedreschi, VP of community and developer relations at Imply. “As such, I have been privy to and experienced first-hand the oftentimes unconscious biases against women in this field.”
As an example, she said: “I’ve been the technical spokesperson lead for my organization countless times. Yet, it is not an uncommon occurrence that during the Q&A session following my presentation, the audience has directed their questions to my male counterpart. Even when that male has looked to me for guidance, and I would take the lead in providing the technical response, the next questions would, again, be directed back to my male colleague. To survive and thrive as a female in previously stereotypical male roles, women must be prepared to actively break biases.”
She offered some advice: “We must teach girls and women to assert themselves, which historically has not typically been a trait to which we are attributed (not positively, anyway). At the same time, we need to teach everyone to stop making assumptions based on the gender of the person they see in front of them. Technical people come in all shapes and sizes but there has been a tendency to assume that males are the more technical ones.”
Pedreschi continued: “We have indeed come a long way. Yet, biases do persist. As women, the more we speak up, actively pursue and contribute to typically male-dominated fields, the more we can help to shatter these preconceived notions.”
Meanwhile, Adobe and Perficient are partnering to host the sixth annual Women in Digital panel, virtually on March 8, one week before the online Adobe Summit 2022. In honor of IWD, each confirmed attendee will result in a donation that benefits Girls Who Code, Stephanie Gallina, Perficient director of partner marketing, said in a blog post. The Women in Digital event held last October generated $2,000 in donations to breast cancer awareness and support organizations, inspiring the team to take a similar approach when planning this year’s event, she said.
Also, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women built a series of “Women’s History Week” events in conjunction with IWD, Palo Alto Networks said in a blog post. Each week in March, the company is featuring quotes that it said “motivate and move our employees, along with their take on what the quotes mean to them.”
Sony, meanwhile, said it will host a March 8 webinar featuring female cinematographers Christine A. Maier and Maura Morales Bergmann and camera operator Kat Spencer, who will discuss their careers, projects and experiences. Their unique perspective will give viewers an insight on diversity and equality in the cinema industry, by listening to the panelists’ stories and experience but also an opportunity to interact through questions with them.
For the past seven years, the Microsoft Leap program has developed programs that Microsoft said are “aimed at ‘breaking the bias.’” The company accomplishes that “mission by sourcing and developing non-traditional and highly diverse candidates for roles within the tech industry,” it said. In May, Microsoft Leap plans to launch its first cohort for sales roles in Australia and New Zealand, the company said.
Also, in partnership with the Africa Development Center, Microsoft Leap is celebrating IWD through March 8. The company is hosting several events it said are “aimed at empowering and upskilling women for the tech ecosystem.”