It’s time to be bold for women.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was Be Bold for Change. But what does it mean to be bold? Being bold is confronting your parents when they say your brother deserves an education more than you. It is challenging local practices so that women have the ability to decide on their own fertility. It is standing up and speaking out for the millions of women who have experienced gender-based violence. It is kicking down the boardroom door to make sure women have a seat at the table.

At Women Deliver, being bold means transforming the narrative around girls and women—showing the world that they are not victims, but powerful agents of change. Being bold means that girls and women have the right to choose, the right to fight, and the right to reach their full potential.

The call to “be bold for change” won’t stop on March 8th but will endure throughout the year. How will you be bold for girls and women not just today, but every day?

According to Margie Warrell,an author, speaker and Ambassador for Women in Global Business:

it’s time that we all committed to #BeBoldForChange. Not for the sake of a bigger salary or larger office. Not just for the sake of improving the stats or removing the stigma of female ambition. We must be bold for the sake of all the talent and human potential that is left untapped and for the sake of the world that all our children and our children’s children will one day inhabit.

Change extends from the inside out. If you’ve ever wondered if there’s more you could be doing than you’ve done so far, the answer is yes and the time is now.

Sexism hurts everyone. Tackling sexism is not therefor not a feminist issue because, as research shows, closing the gender gap and creating gender equality is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.

Whether you are male or female, young or old,  sit in the c-suite or don’t even own a suit, make the decision to step up more often, to speak up more loudly and to be a fearless force for the change you want to see in the world. As Margaret Mead once wrote “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

 

1. http://womendeliver.org/

2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2017/03/06/be-bold-for-change-tackling-sexism-head-this-international-womens-day/#62aae6b25793