#ChooseToChallenge100: WeAreTheCity celebrate International Women’s Day by amplifying the voices of 100 incredible women

This year on March 8, we will celebrate the 110th International women’s day. 

IWD was first celebrated as an official international day on 19 March 1911. Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland were among the first countries outside of the US to mark the day. In 1975, during the International Women’s Year, the United Nations began celebrating 8 March as International Women’s Day. Since 1996, International Women’s Day has focused on annual themes that enables supporters to unite for gender equality. This year’s theme is Choose to Challenge.

We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. Never has there been a more important year for us to choose to challenge. The impact of Covid has been incredibly hard on women, bearing the brunt of extra childcare, losing jobs in greater numbers than men, being on the short end of governments support, especially for new mothers. The list goes on!

We also saw all gender pay gap reporting suspended in 2020, which was one of the only measurements of success that we had. A recent article in The Guardian cites that the impact of the pandemic could mean that we are at risk of putting 50 years of progress into reverse. Our voices need to be heard, and what better day to start to raise our collective voices than International Women’s Day.

To celebrate this incredible day, WeAreTheCity and WeAreTechWomen have asked 100 women to share their stories as to how and why they choose to challenge. Our campaign includes stories of challenge from CEO’s, Founders, Campaigners, Politicians, Charities and thought leaders.

Hear more about our campaign from Vanessa Vallely OBE, MD, WeAreTheCity & WeAreTechWomen

Helen Pankhurst CBE | Women's Rights Campaigner, Senior Advisor, Care International

Dr Shola Mos Shogbamimu | Lawyer, Activist, Founder of Women in Leadership Publication, Social Entrepreneur & Author

Jess Philips | Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley

Rosie Nixon

Rosie Nixon | Editor in Chief, HELLO! magazine

June Angelides CBE | Early Stage Investor, Entrepreneur, Speaker & Advocate for the Rights of Working Mothers

Deborah James | Campaigner, Broadcaster, Writer & Podcaster

Each day we will share the stories of three incredible women on our social media channels and websites, culminating in one every hour on the 8th March.

We will also feature a number of these incredible women at our IWD event on 5th March – You can book your place here.

Watch a sneak peek to two of our amazing women below:

June Angelides CBE, Early Stage Investor, Entrepreneur, Speaker & Advocate for the Rights of Working Mothers

Charly Young, CEO & Co-Founder, The Girls' Network

Get involved

We want to add your voices to this campaign so we can all be heard, everyone has a story to tell!

If you want to get involved in this campaign, you can record your own 1-2 minute IWD video and share with us on social media. Just tag us in from 01 March on Twitter @watc_updates or @watc_wearetech or on Insta @Watc_HQ or tag us in on LinkedIn @WeAretheCity using hashtags #ChooseToChallenge100 #ChooseToChallenge

We can all choose to challenge, not just for IWD, but every day – Join the movement and help us to amplify your voices.

We have also created an entire page on our websites dedicated to IWD. If you are looking for events, campaigns and celebrations to get involved in, please visit here. We are also happy to add your public events and articles to this page, just email details to [email protected]

International Women's Day screen recording
About the author

Alison is the Digital Content Editor for WeAreTheCity. She has a BA Honours degree in Journalism and History from the University of Portsmouth. She has previously worked in the marketing sector and in a copywriting role. Alison’s other passions and hobbies include writing, blogging and travelling.
Visa - WeAreTheCity - Pioneer 20 - nominations open
WeAreTech Festival 2024 advert

Upcoming Events

march, 2024

Job Board Banner

Related Posts