International Women’s Day: Practical ideas for small businesses

International Women’s Day (IWD) falls on 8 March and is a worldwide celebration of female achievements whilst promoting gender equality. The event honours women’s cultural, political and social accomplishments and contributions and advocates for every woman and girl’s right to safety and equality.

While we should strive to strengthen these ideals every day, International Women’s Day specifically addresses them. The event unites communities, helps spread awareness, and stimulates action among influential parties, including small business owners, who can accelerate genuine, long-term change.

The event highlights a different theme each year to focus on the various empowerment actions behind IWD. The International Women’s Day 2025 theme is ‘Accelerate Action’, emphasising the urgency of taking proactive steps towards eliminating biases and achieving gender equality.

Even though International Women’s Day has existed for over a century and excellent progress has been made over the years, there’s a lot we can still do to create a safe and fair society for all.

But IWD’s impact certainly isn’t restricted to one day per year. As a Mindful Employer that values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion, Rapid Formations is here to provide small business owners with practical ways to celebrate IWD at work on 8 March and beyond.

5 ways to celebrate International Women’s Day at work

Is this your company’s first time celebrating International Women’s Day, or are you stuck for ideas on how to mark the event in your workplace? Here are a few IWD activity ideas to consider:

1. Attend an International Women’s Day event

If you’re looking for active ways to get involved, why not attend an IWD event? The International Women’s Day website contains a directory of events, which you can browse by country and city. You’ll find a variety of free, paid, virtual, and in-person activities for you and your employees to participate in before, on, and after 8 March.

For instance, you could sign up for Lean in Girls x IWD 2025, a virtual meeting dedicated to exploring actionable, research-backed strategies to empower women and girls and help them fight against gender stereotypes.

International Women’s Day workout class in London

Alternatively, if you run a London-based business and are interested in physical events, why not try a free martial arts class, or focus on restoration and creativity in a writing and yoga workshop?

You can also run internal workshops and support groups in your workplace. Simply download the free IWD Planning Toolkit, which contains helpful resources for planning and executing an engaging and impactful International Women’s Day event.

2. Support a women-focused charity

International Women’s Day is an excellent opportunity to make a difference by supporting a women-focused charity. Showing your audience that you play an active role in philanthropy will also help strengthen your brand’s reputation.

Here are some ways to do this effectively:

• Choose the right charity – Do your research. Find a meaningful charity that aligns with your business goals, values, and mission.
• Offer financial support – Decide how your organisation will financially support its chosen charity. You could donate some of your sales, sponsor them at projects and events, or encourage your customers and employees to contribute.
• Raise awareness – Feature your chosen charity on your website and social media channels. This will help educate your online visitors about the charity and your partnership and encourage them to get involved.
• Organise charity events – Host internal fundraisers and networking events, asking employees to donate to your chosen charity. Also, organise volunteering days for staff to visit your charity partner, learn about their work, and contribute to their cause with hands-on support.

3. Share a celebratory social media post

A simple but effective way to celebrate International Women’s Day is to share a social media post. This is excellent for sharing your company values, spreading awareness, and engaging with your followers.

But there are certain do’s and don’ts when sharing IWD content publicly.

Do:

• Spotlight your wonderful female employees and colleagues and the work they do in and outside of work
• Acknowledge the women who inspire you in your personal and/or professional life
• Re-post powerful IWD posts, stories, and videos you’ve seen online
• Connect with your audience by sharing your story if you’re a female founder
• Discuss your motivations, challenges, and victories that got you to where you are today
• Show appreciation and acknowledgement of the women in your life. A simple ‘thank you’ message goes a long way on International Women’s Day
• Highlight your company’s charitable efforts and community involvement that help empower the women around you
• Practice what you preach. For instance, if you share a post about equal pay, ensure your company offers this

Don’t:

• Activate aggressive discounts or promotions on International Women’s Day. This can come across as insensitive, ill-timed, and profit-focused
• Use poorly selected imagery
• Treat International Women’s Day as a PR and marketing opportunity

To illustrate what we mean, take a look at this X (formerly Twitter) post from the fashion brand, Missguided.

This message received mixed responses. Some users spread the love, and some exposed the brand for failing to pay its workers equally. At the time of posting, Missguided had a 40% gender pay gap.

Instead, try this Instagram post from the small business marketplace, Not On The High Street (NOTHS).

This post perfectly captures the essence of the NOTHS brand while drawing attention to their incredible female-led small business partners. It’s basic but impactful, and the caption promotes positive user engagement.

If you’re unsure how to craft social media content, look at these social media cards. Simply follow the templates provided and use the instructed hashtags.

4. Invite a guest speaker to your workplace

Bringing in a guest speaker is a terrific way to engage and educate your teams about International Women’s Day. This could be a female business owner, a women’s rights activist, or an expert from a relevant social organisation.

The intention is for a guest speaker to share real-life experiences, struggles, triumphs, and advice with your employees. Facilitating these open and honest discussions can help the women in your business feel safe, supported, and confident to speak up about their own challenges.

You can host guest speakers in person or virtually, making this an accessible opportunity for remote, hybrid, and office-based workers.

5. Share educational resources

Providing educational resources is a powerful way to celebrate International Women’s Day while raising awareness and fostering empowerment and inclusivity in the workplace.

Educational resources can include books/audiobooks, podcasts, videos, quotes, infographics, social media posts, and articles. There are plenty of free or low-cost options out there.

Here are some of our recommended IWD reads and audiobooks:

• Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed by Men, Caroline Criado Perez
• The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men, and What We Can Do About It, Mary Ann Sieghart
• The Women’s Suffrage Movement, Sally Roesch Wagner & Gloria Steinem
• Back Talk, Danielle Lazarin
• She Speaks: Women’s Speeches that Changed the World, Yvette Cooper

If you prefer podcasts, you might like The Worst Girl Gang Ever, The Guilty Feminist, or Woman’s Hour.

Or if you’re looking to share an inspirational quote with your teams or direct them to a motivational figure this International Women’s Day, we caught up with Kelly Chandler, founder of Kelly Chandler Consulting, venue expert, and high-end customer experience consultant, about what IWD means to her as a female entrepreneur.

Kelly Chandler

Here’s what she said:

“As an entrepreneur, I know that my brain – and the brains of many of my fellow businesswomen – is busy rushing ahead, creating the next thing, looking to future goals. But International Women’s Day is a day to take stock, to pause, to reflect on how far we’ve come and to celebrate not just our own endeavours in business, but women’s success in the world in general. It’s a day that I love to champion my fellow women in business.”

Long-term International Women’s Day initiatives

Celebrating IWD and standing for women’s rights should be an ongoing effort. Below are five additional steps you can take if you’re looking for more long-term strategies to boost awareness and your organisation’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.

1. Run a gender pay gap audit

Despite efforts to ensure equal pay for men and women, the gender pay gap remains one of the most persistent challenges in the fight for women’s rights. International Women’s Day helps expose income inequality and calls on employers to take meaningful steps towards fixing this.

To provide a clearer picture of the gender pay gap, here’s how it has evolved over time and its current state in the UK.

The gap is slowly closing. That said, there is a 13.1% disparity in the salaries that men receive versus women.

Interestingly, this trend inverses for part-time workers, showing that, as of April 2024, women in part-time roles are paid 3% more than their male counterparts. The ONS explains that this is due to more women occupying part-time jobs. In contrast, there are more men in full-time occupations, and so the gender pay gap is higher in this category.

See also: Mental health and entrepreneurs See also: Record rise in companies launched by women See also: New legal duty to prevent sexual harassment: advice for employers

Furthermore, the ONS found that skilled trades occupations have the highest pay difference between men and women – a gap of nearly 16%. Next are process plant and machine operatives and associate professionals and technical occupations sectors, which pay women around 12% less.

The picture is starker on a global scale. OECD data shows that the gender pay gap is highest in Korea (29.3%), Japan (22%), and the US (16.4%). The UK has the 6th largest gender pay gap.

Action for small businesses

Running a gender pay audit is a crucial step for small businesses to ensure pay equity and promote workplace fairness.

Take the time to identify any gender pay gaps in your business and their potential causes. Could it be a disparity in overtime or commissions? Could it be a lack of structured pay policy or inconsistent performance reviews?

Investigate why imbalances exist and whether they’re justified. Then, implement sustainable strategies to close the gender pay gap for good.

2. Establish a women’s mentorship programme

Another idea is to provide mentorship for female employees. Mentorship is when an experienced individual (the mentor) provides guidance and advice to a mentee, helping them grow personally and professionally. Mentorship programmes can be group or one-to-one relationships, short or long-term, and formal or informal.

A mentorship programme can help bridge diversity gaps in your business, boost people’s confidence, and provide crucial guidance for personal and career growth.

3. Provide training and development opportunities

Specific training and development opportunities complement a mentorship programme. These are targeted ways to enhance employees’ skills and knowledge relevant to their role in the business. These include industry courses, skills training, and e-learning.

These methods bolster staff members’ qualifications, improve job satisfaction and confidence, enhance overall well-being, and promote a more inclusive workplace culture.

In honour of International Women’s Day, consider introducing or expanding your business’s development opportunities. You should ensure that the company offers all staff an equal chance to succeed and rewards everyone equally for their contributions to the company’s success.

4. Implement flexible working policies for working mothers

Juggling work with childcare poses significant challenges for working mothers in the UK. A persistent cycle forces many women to return to work from maternity leave quickly due to insufficient maternity pay. Consequently, high childcare costs and caregiving responsibilities can stall their career progression – or push them out of the workforce.

According to the ‘Paths to parenthood: Uplifting new mothers at work’ survey by the Fawcett Society and Totaljobs (2023), working mothers are nearly twice as likely as fathers to feel childcare’s financial strain. This burden also makes them twice as likely to consider leaving their jobs – an outcome that 11% of surveyed women followed through on.

The survey asked about their ideal solutions to these problems. Here’s what they said.

The support these women want to see most is flexible working arrangements, which only 31% of working mothers say they currently get.

If your business doesn’t offer flexible working or your policy could be improved, it’s a strategy worth exploring in light of International Women’s Day. Flexible working would boost employees’ work/life balance and job satisfaction and reduce burnout.

In turn, you, the employer, would benefit from happier, more engaged employees, reduced skills gaps, and lower costs associated with filling them.

5. Join the IWD community

Finally, register for a free IWD account. As an IWD community member, you can access specialist resources and content and receive regular news and event updates. That way, you’ll never miss anything and benefit from ongoing support on communicating with and engaging your team on International Women’s Day.

Stand up for women’s rights this International Women’s Day

From a simple social media post to enhancing internal policies, there are many ways small businesses can get involved in International Women’s Day and make an impact. This is your chance to do the right thing, share your values, and inspire others to unite in celebrating women and strengthening gender equality.

Thank you for reading this article. We hope you enjoyed it and found practical solutions and ideas for your business to participate in International Women’s Day.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics mentioned in this article, so please comment below. Also, remember to browse the Rapid Formations blog for similar articles.