March 8th is International Women’s Day (IWD), how will you celebrate?

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is #PledgeForParity. The theme highlights the gender parity that women still struggle to achieve economically, socially, culturally, and politically.  The theme is timely.  Financial abuse is a common tactic that is often used to control the woman in domestic violence situations.  If she wants to leave an abusive relationship, her choices are limited by her ability to leave the relationship, earn a living and make a new life for herself and children. We also know that abuse impacts work performance and income as well as potential job loss. Employers can act socially responsible by educating managers, human resources and workers to on issues of Domestic Violence. We are excited to advocate for gender parity as part of IWD, as there are significant attainable strides that can be made in improving workplace policies and procedures for abuse victims.

According to the United Nations, the first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1909 in solidarity of women protesting poor working conditions in the garment industry.  Even today, we encourage employers to think of IWD as a day to consider new initiatives to increase women’s health and safety.  Take a whole company approach to educate everyone in your organization to recognize warning signs and the risk factors of domestic violence. Provide training that sensitizes people to the complexity of the issue and that lends itself to an overall supportive workplace culture.  Implement workplace policies that include accommodations and paid leave for women experiencing abuse to attend court or to obtain medical treatment. These are significant steps that demonstrate an employer’s commitment to every worker’s morale and health.

Whether you’re an employer or a worker this International Women’s Day, we hope you will take the pledge of parity and advocate for victims of abuse who may be on your team.  If you have the power to make or change policies and practices, we encourage you to lead by example and take initiative in developing these changes.  If you have the power to influence, please advocate for workplace changes on behalf of your colleagues who might not be ready to speak up. Take the pledge.