The SheEO Blog

How did you celebrate International Women’s Day on Monday?  I spent the day flipping between parenting and preparing for a presentation I delivered at an IWD event today for ClubsNSW (Monday is my day with Ethan).  And is the case for most of us, my IWD festivities spanned a week.  I’ve been to a number of events which have uplifted me and made me realise how lucky I am.  These events have included a Zonta breakfast and a Unifem breakfast (as a guest of Westpac) both raising awareness of the Millenium Development Goals for empowering women to end poverty by 2015.  I’m also off to a Women on Boards function tonight celebrating the work of young female artists - I can't wait for that one!

The work of Unifem has really stuck with me though.  Even for those of us who travel regularly, it’s easy to forget on a day-to-day basis how priviliged we are.  Therese Rein in her keynote address at the Unifem breakfast shared the stories of three Australian women who are making real changes to the lives of young women and their communities in countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania and India, and of the work Unifem is doing to support women in developing communities all around the world.  I was so inspired that I’ve added Unifem to the list of our Giving Back partners at sphinxx, by signing up for a corporate membership and committing to support one of their regional iniatives in 2010.  I know I'm only one woman, but together I believe we can all make a difference.  So I encourage you to do the same.

And the business side of IWD?  I took the opportunity to expand my network while celebrating IWD and have made a number of new contacts that I’ll be working with in 2010 including Natalie Isaacs from 1millionwomen who will be speaking with some of the 1millionwomen Abmassadors at our August series of Ascend.  I also read a fantastic article by Janine Gome of smartcompany.com.au on Why women should aim for the top - this is a must read article for all professional women and I encourage you to take a look.

As I follow up with others of you I have met at IWD events over the past week, thank you for sharing the festivities with me.  And to all of you, I hope over the year ahead to hear your success stories and that we will all together be celebrating even more accomplishments at the IWD centenary next year in 2011.