International Women's Day 2023 is a day for us to raise awareness of discrimination and gender equality. It is a time for us to take a look at the women in our lives who inspire us and educate ourselves on how we can recognise our own biases and challenge ourselves.
We Celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th every year. This is because it is the anniversary of a march which took place in New York in 1857, where female textile workers took to the streets in protest of their working conditions, asking for equal rights for women.
Whilst celebrating the positive things women bring to a workforce and society in general, today also marks a call to action for gender equality.
We asked everyone at Mosaic to tell us a woman who they find inspiring to them. Below are some of the responses we got!
To me, Lizzo is a game changer not just by being a strong female in the music industry but also by the activist work she does in terms of promoting positive body image and giving other activists a voice. I love her tenacity in speaking her mind through song and in interviews.
Recently she won a 'People's Choice Award' in which she used her platform to promote the work of other female activists, from human rights activists to women's rights activists. She even invited them on stage to accept the award with her. She celebrates her body and is outspoken about the challenges she has faced 'making it'. Aside from that she has her own clothing line in which she promotes different body types to show off the items. She is a great role model for the younger generation and I think if I grew up with role models like Lizzo it would have helped!
Nadia Beaumont, Content Marketing Manager
Carrie Fisher was the first hero I had as a young girl and I can remember wearing my hair in buns as she did in Star Wars when I was about 4. I loved princess Leia and was often inspired by Carrie and how she didn't care what people thought of her, and what a great role model she was.
A woman who never apologised for her flaws, often making them public to show that she was human and did not have a perfect life. She was relatable to so many, she battled substance and alcohol abuse, and lived with depression and bipolar.
She was beautiful, funny, crazy and a total non-traditional princess/ general, who inspired generations of young girls to not be the one that gets rescued, but the one doing the rescuing.
No matter how many times she got knocked down, she always got back up and fought harder and with more conviction.
She championed change in a male-dominated industry and worked hard to bring voices to those being abused and downtrodden.
Carrie was never afraid to talk and tackle the hard subjects that many found uncomfortable.
She will always be a true star, and hero.
Mel Davis
She was a fantastic woman who stood up for what she believed in and did a lot of amazing work in regard to animal rights, racial equality and LGBT+ rights, as well as being an openly childfree woman - like me!
Founder of The Body Shop, human rights activist and environmental campaigner.
"She’s my inspiration as she achieved so much and was very much a forward thinker. She opened her first shop in 1976 (after selling her products door to door from a basket) to support herself and her two young children while her husband was away horse-riding in America. The shop was in between two funeral parlours causing massive interest locally being called “The Body Shop’ which gave her fantastic free publicity! It was painted green (not because of environmental links) but because it was the cheapest paint and it covered up the damp patches well!
From one flagship she created a franchisee option in almost 2000 shops allowing people to have their own businesses and was
one of the first companies to ban the use of ingredients tested on animals in its products. She also promoted fair trade in developing countries and encouraged customers to reuse and refill as (initially) she couldn’t afford a stock of bottles. And to combat body image issues in women, she created Ruby, a size 16 red-haired doll who featured in much of the promotional literature at the time.
Her campaigning work still continues after her death through charities and foundations. She left her entire £51 million estate to charities rather than to her family and friends."
Lauren Turansky, Fostering Recruitment Manager
Jenny Sprince is the founder of APPCIOS which is "The Association for Psychodynamic Practice and Counselling in Organisational Settings" which "is an independent professional association whose members have demonstrated expertise in psychodynamic practice and counselling within organisational settings. It is not associated with any one training organisation but is able to accept practitioners from a wide variety of in-house and “portfolio” training. APPCIOS is a Member Institution of the British Psychoanalytic Council." Aly has nominated her as an inspirational person in her life as she has created a space to think and developed a community.
Social worker Callum offered up his inspiration as Little Simz. Little Simz is a rapper from London. He admires her for her activist work for equality and for being a female in a male-dominated genre. She talks a lot about this, stating that “a lot more that can be done.”
Why not take a look at the strong women we have in our agency by seeing who we are.
Want to learn more about International Women's Day? Take a look here and to read about the organisation behind International Women's Day here.
