Zignal employees strike the #BalanceforBetter pose with their official IWD selfie pledge cards, committing to a year of action towards achieving a more gender-balanced world.

Every year on March 8, the world observes International Women’s Day (IWD). IWD is a global day for celebrating the social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women, as well as a continued call for true gender parity. First observed in 1911 by more than one million participants, the theme of this year’s IWD was #BalanceforBetter, challenging society to engage in meaningful discussion and collective action towards creating a more gender-balanced world.

Finding Balance

Zignal Labs is committed to collaborative excellence, one of the five key pillars that guide our team and company, and last Friday we celebrated IWD by holding a roundtable discussion to explore #BalanceforBetter.

More than one-third of our employees, including many male allies, attended the roundtable, exploring topics that included what balance means to each of us individually and the world collectively, how we can all commit to moving the needle on gender equality this year, and our goals and aspirations for gender equality in the next five years.

When discussing the challenges of navigating the often-fraught waters of work-life balance as a woman, one participant shared her experience of being a new mom and how she builds a network of support – both at home with the support of her husband and at work with the support of her employees – to ensure she can find balance.

“It really does take a village, but it’s encouraging to see the progress being made towards gender equality,” said another IWD roundtable participant and mom of one (soon to be two). “My husband’s company, for example, provides 20 weeks of paid paternity leave, which helps us both lead more balanced lives.”

Our discussion also focused on the importance of balanced wellbeing between genders – and how women often deprioritize personal wellbeing in the face of an unbalanced life. We discussed various strategies for encouraging a commitment to balanced wellbeing, including motivating others to complete wellbeing activities and developing focused mentoring, coaching and wellbeing programs.

Looking Ahead

At the end of our roundtable discussion, participants made individual and collective pledges to help create a more balanced world, committing to take actions such as empowering women, both within the workplace and without, using more gender-neutral terms and challenging gender stereotypes and biases.

To support these commitments, Zignal Labs provided each participant with $25 to invest in international women entrepreneurs through the Kiva Foundation, a global microloan provider.  As a company, Zignal Labs is committed to continuing the discussion around #BalanceforBetter and gender equality throughout the year.

To learn more about Zignal Life, check out our Resource Center and our five core pillars. If you’d like to continue learning about ways to make the world – and the communications industry – more balanced, join us at Zignal Summit 2019, where we’ll be discussing strategies for leveraging data and analytics to drive social good.