Today, on March 8th, Simpactful joins the world in celebrating International Women’s Day. Business has a critical role to play in advancing gender equality, with industries, like retail, leading the charge and we’re proud that our team comprises of 50% women leaders. It may come as a surprise that 40 percent of the privately held businesses in the US are owned by women. This means that roughly every other storefront, digital or physical, has a woman at the helm. According to a recent 2018 State of Women-Owned Businesses report, the number of companies owned by women increased almost 31-fold between 1972 and 2018–from 402,000 to 12.3 million.
International Women’s Day is about recognizing the impressive work our women leaders do every day at Simpactful. We asked Simpactful leaders what International Women’s Day means to them and while the answers may vary, we stand together to celebrate our achievements.
Julie Oxner, VP of Operations
“International Women’s Day is a day for celebrating the amazing women who have taught me, helped me, and supported me in my life and my career. At Simpactful, I am proud to work with an amazing group of women who partner and support each other to deliver the best growth plans for our clients.”
Mary Pickering, Partner
“To me, International Women’s Day is a terrific opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come as women in the work world. When I think back to when my career began, I was expected to wear high heels with both a black, blue or gray business suit and a feminine bow tie. It’s so nice to no longer have that uniform. It’s terrific to recall the work life benefits including part time, compressed work week, work from home, and sabbaticals that all came about over the last 25 years to improve the life balance of the employee. I work with more satisfaction and accomplishments than ever before because the work place has so dramatically improved. As I look ahead and have a successful daughter in the same industry, I’m so excited for what International Women’s Day will mean for her going forward.”
Michele Wolford, Sr. Consultant
“International Women’s Day reminds me of how fortunate I’ve been to work with exceptional men and women in my career. In my experience “The better the balance, the better the world” has translated into men and women working collaboratively to achieve better culture, ideas, solutions, and focus on the consumer. One of my favorite quotes is, “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels” “
Lori Proctor, Partner
“My great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and now daughter all worked outside of the home while raising their children. I am proud of all we’ve been able to accomplish and am grateful that I have had better opportunities for growth than the previous generations, with a successful career and now as a business owner in Simpactful. I look forward to seeing even greater opportunities for women as my daughter and granddaughter follow their dreams.” #BalanceforBetter
Jessica White Hall, Partner
“Each year this time for recognition of women generates more and more excitement. The last few years, especially, feels like women have collectively decided to give an unmuffled voice to our causes, set new courses for history and create the narratives rather than have them written by someone else. Truly inspiring times.”
Allisha Watkins, Sr. Consultant
“In full transparency, I believe it is a crazy to celebrate women on this one day. Truth is, it is our responsibility to celebrate and support each other, every day. And it’s not just about the awards we’ve won or the promotions we received but rather, the most important part of all of this is how we show up. How we treat each other and how we make others feel. How we stay true to our beliefs and constantly strive to be the best version of ourselves. It’s about respecting one another and leaving a legacy that goes beyond our individual performances.”
Joan Toth, Sr. Consultant
“While advancing gender equality should be on agenda 365 days a year, on IWD it’s a good opportunity for us to pause and reflect on the strides and contributions women make to our businesses, our economies, and our world. It’s also a good time to set our objectives high – at the current rate of progress, the pay gap between men and women will continue until 2059. We can’t wait that long – we have to set bold goals and take action to ensure pay equality.”
