Celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD)
Shouting Out to Our Diverse and Dynamic Team at Platt/Whitelaw!
Happy International Women’s Day!
“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist, nor to any one organization, but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.” – Gloria Steinem
Word, Gloria! The official International Women’s Day organization describes today as “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.”
History
Please allow us to help you impress your friends with a little history lesson.
The First IWD gathering was in 1911 (when it was honored by Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland). Celebrating the 100th anniversary of IWD, former Pres. Barack Obama proclaimed March 2011 to be Women’s History Month.
Specific to our industry, we think this site does a great job of highlighting 20 famous female architects. It’s a fun read of names you may and may-not-yet know.
Platt/Whitelaw Creds
We’re happy to toot our own horn in honor of this day, too. Nine of our 17-person staff are women, and one of those women holds a leadership position. Over our firm’s lifetime, two of our owners were/are women.
This year’s IWD campaign theme is Inspire Inclusion. While the theme specifically refers to women, inclusion means more to us. Seven members of our staff qualify as minorities, including our firm owner. Prioritizing inclusion extends to age and gender identity for us, too. We’re also very proud that our staff, combined, can speak nine languages and dialects.
Moving Forward
While this is a day for celebration and intention, we want to sign off with a wakeup call we found on the International Women’s Day website: “According to the World Economic Forum, sadly none of us will see gender parity in our lifetime, and nor likely will many of our children. Gender parity won’t be attained for well over a century.”
That said, we also want to share this thought from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
So, in the words of Shania Twain, “Let’s go, girls!” (And allies!)
