Celebrating 115 years of International Women’s Day
I was six years old when I first learned boys and girls are not treated the same.
It was midday recess, and I wanted to play soccer, but the boys wouldn’t let me join because I was a girl. It did not matter to them how many weekends I played soccer with my big brother; I was still a girl, and that was a good enough reason to rule me out. You can imagine the devastation my six-year-old self felt. We all have that moment; it might have been more detrimental to some, it might have been as small as a speck as mine was, and yet we all share that life-teaching moment.
Years later in college, in one of my philosophy classes, I read Simone de Beauvoir’s revolutionary book The Second Sex, and right there I was transported back in time to that school’s playground. “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman,” she wrote — and coined that very experience for me, for many of us.
In our different life stages, we encounter these labels, expectations, definitions (and even moments of self-questioning) of what it means to be a woman, and of how we are supposed to behave, act, or advance in life. And while all of our experiences have been diverse, each of us has faced a myriad of expectations from our surroundings, encountered different labels and barriers, we have managed to form a sense of community.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest evidence of “sisterhood” was found in English literature in the 14th century. Back then, it simply meant “the state of being a sister.” Today, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary added another “solidarity of women based on shared conditions, experiences, or concerns.” Looking within our own industry, amazing women across the board move mountains, change reality on the ground, and set new records daily in their own unique way. She might just be starting her career or already has a seat in the C-suite. She might be a sister, a mother, a caretaker, she could be single, married, widowed. She can be anything and everything. Behind all the labels, the definitions and the expectations, there stand amazing women, working and advancing every day. What makes them, what makes us, stronger is that same sense that we have had for centuries – women have looked out for each other in sisterhood. Whether it was back in the 14th century, or today in 2026, women across the world have always connected, shared and stood together.
On March 8th, 1911, over a million people marched through the streets of Europe in celebration of the first International Women’s Day. These past 115 years have seen tremendous advancements in women’s rights, from forming international commissions for gender equality, achieving equal voting and legal rights in many countries across the
world, and seeing women becoming world leaders in politics, business and all facets of society. This is a day for the celebration of women and the great strides we have accomplished towards gender equality, but it is also a day to remember how much more there is to be done, and how together, we can continue bridging those gaps and achieving equality across the board.
In a world where it seems everything is polarized, including the very definition of a woman Simone de Beauvoir spoke of decades ago, it is easy to get distracted by the noise and forget the centuries of women who stood together and supported each other. And so, for this International Women’s Day, we should celebrate the women who inspire us, the women in our lives, and what connects us all together — our sisterhood.
