Brands acing International Women’s Day

From Barbie to BirchBox, what are brands doing for International Women’s Day?

“Better the balance,
better the World”

Today marks International Women’s Day, and many brands are coming together in full force to celebrate women all over the world under the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day — #BalanceForBetter.

With the likes of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements showing the effectiveness and viability of using social media for political engagement and social activism, it’s no surprise that social plays a massive role in spreading awareness around #IWD. Our research shows that IWD 2018 alone generated more than 737K mentions on Twitter, with an extremely high positive sentiment at 96%.

Let’s take a look at how some brands are using social media and digital platforms to smash the patriarchy this year…

Creative Equals

Creative Equals, an award-winning organisation championing diversity and inclusion in creative industries, are encouraging women to change their names on social media to ‘Dave’ and pushing the hashtag #IAmDave to bring awareness to gender inequality in the workplace. This campaign is in protest against the fact that there are more men called Dave on the FTSE100 than there are women.

Barbie

As part of their ongoing commitment to #CloseTheDreamGap, Barbie is honouring #MoreRoleModels from around the world by creating doll versions of high-profile and inspirational women, such as British activist and model Adwoa Aboah, cycling champion Kristina Vogel and gymnast Dipa Karmakar.

“The brand believes girls should never know a world, job, or dream women haven’t conquered,” says the general manager and senior vice president Lisa McKnight.

PayPal

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the online money transfer company have teamed up with a number of female business leaders and founders to discuss their experiences and thoughts on how to create a more gender-balanced world. The video features five female leaders, such as the vice-president of Benefit Cosmetics and co-founder of Stella & Dot, sharing their ideas on how businesses can better create a more gender-balanced world.

Throughout March, PayPal is also honouring extraordinary female-led brands and the inspiring women who founded them by sharing their stories here PayPal.com/IWD, as well as donating $2 from every eligible purchase made at select retailers to causes that support women.

Benefit Cosmetics

To mark International Women’s Day, Benefit Cosmetics has closed down its website to stand up to injustice in the workplace. They are “replacing makeup with resources you can use to empower yourself and others” — a list of ways you can stand up to gender inequality such as, “Do More Than Double Tap — Show some IWD love on social, then back it up with action IRL. Volunteer or donate to charities that support women and girls in your community.”

BirchBox

The monthly subscription company hosted an inspiring and eye-opening Facebook Live event encouraging girls to tune in and have their questions answered, with no topics off limits! The social media manager at BirchBox sat down with the founder of Elizabeth Scarlett, influencer and founder of clothing brand Coco & Indie and Beth Reekles, author of The Kissing Booth where they discussed careers, failures and being a woman.

Vodafone Group

This International Women’s Day, Vodafone is continuing to empower women all over the world with their ongoing campaign #ConnectedSheCan. They hope to help millions of women connect to a better future by giving them access to health and wellbeing resources, quality education and financial inclusion.

They have also pledged to be the best employer for women by 2025. The mobile company states “Our global maternity programme gives female employees a minimum of 16-weeks fully paid leave across 30 countries and full time pay for a four-day week for the first six months after returning to work. We have a target to employ 1,000 women through ReConnect, our global recruitment programme to help career-break women re-enter the workforce in management roles.”

Nikki Rayner, Paid Social Media Executive – Wilderness Agency