International Women's Day 2025: Celebrating in the workplace

Every March 8, the world comes together to honor and celebrate the incredible achievements of women across the globe. International Women’s Day is a reminder that workplaces must actively break barriers, overcome biases, and build a workplace that supports equality and inclusion.

This International Women's Day, let's take a moment to reflect on its significance and explore what HR teams need to know to build an empowering workplace.

What's the theme of International Women's Day 2025?

The theme for this year's International Women's Day is "Accelerate Action." According to International Women's Day's official website, we can expect to see a world with full gender equality by 2158. That's why this year's theme challenges everyone to accelerate efforts toward breaking biases and barriers that stop women from progressing in both their professional and personal lives. The aim of this year's International Women's Day celebration is to find strategies that help bridge gender gaps, break stereotypes, and amplify women. 

Why is International Women’s Day important?  

Celebrating International Women's Day helps increase awareness about gender equality and build an inclusive world. International Women's Day:

• Highlights women's achievements across different fields and industries

• Raises awareness about the amazing women who have fought to break gender barriers

• Encourages organizations to build policies, reforms, and strategies that uphold true equality everywhere

• Breaks stereotypes, including the gender pay gap and workplace bias

• Calls for equal opportunities for women

Why does International Women’s Day matter in the workplace?  

Here are important reasons why HR teams should make it a point to celebrate International Women's Day in the workplace:

• Building an equal workplace: International Women's Day is the perfect opportunity for leadership teams to evaluate and address gender-related issues—including equal pay, women in leadership roles, and work-life balance—at their organization.

• Recognizing their achievements: Celebrating the achievements of women in the workplace acknowledges their impact and inspires more women.

• Making them feel valued: Celebrating women's achievements and paving the way for equality and diversity shows an organization's commitment toward gender equality, making employees feel valued and empowered.

• Improving employer branding and building a positive culture: Organizations that push for diversity and equality create a positive work culture and improve their employer branding.

How can HR teams celebrate International Women's Day?

There are a lot of ways to celebrate International Women's Day. We've compiled some of our favorites:

• Show some recognition

International Women's Day is an amazing opportunity to highlight the contributions of women at your workplace. Encourage their male counterparts, managers, and subordinates to share notes that highlight how their work has made a difference. Run spotlights on female leaders who have had the greatest impact on your organization. Highlight them in your workspace, newsletters, internal forums, and more. You can also offer meaningful gifts like wellness subscriptions, self-care essentials, recognition awards, and more.

• Provide learning opportunities

Offer training and development opportunities that help women take on new roles, learn soft skills, and move on to leadership positions. You can also encourage mentoring among women, where an experienced female employee guides a new female employee, helping them break barriers and progress at work.

• Host insightful sessions

Invite women speakers, entrepreneurs, or industry leaders to share their experiences and insights on a variety of topics, including financial independence, work-life balance, women in leadership, women in tech, pay parity, women's mental health, and entrepreneurship.

• Celebrate with them

You can also organize fun celebrations. Host a women-exclusive lunch or dinner, helping them bond over some good food, music, dance, and games. You can also organize fun activities like open mic, karoake, art sessions, Super women awards, and more. As part of your celebrations, you can also set up a fun photo booth.

• Build an inclusive workplace

There's no better way to celebrate International Women's Day than by taking active steps to build an equal and inclusive work culture. Run regular audits to ensure employees are paid equally at your workplace. Have transparency in conversations around pay and promotions. Establish policies like parental leave, flexible working hours, remote working, and more to support work-life balance. Train managers on how to overcome their unconscious biases.

Wrapping up

With International Women's Day just around the corner, we at Zoho People are excited to send our best wishes to every woman who strives to make a difference. Happy International Women's Day!