Women's History Month and International Women’s Day are celebrated in March. There are many inclusive and engaging activities for your team to promote diversity and celebrate the contributions women make in the world. Check out our Women's History Month ideas below and see how your organization can recognize incredible women in March. 👇
What is Women's History Month? 👀
Did you know this month-long celebration actually began as National Women’s History Week in the early 1980s? However, following the request from women leaders of the National Women's History Project in 1987, Congress made the nationwide celebration a month-long holiday honoring the steps made towards gender equality, now celebrated every March. 🎉
Why should you honor Women's History at work? 🤔
Whether or not it's March, it's always time to empower women in your workplace and celebrate their journeys and achievements. 💪 The awesome women you work with deserve it — every one is a role model and your company wouldn’t be the same without them.
As a bonus of showing your appreciation and empowering women through inclusion efforts, your company as a whole can benefit. Here are some examples:
- According to a Deloitte survey, showing the rest of the world that you celebrate and appreciate women makes your company more attractive to millennials and Gen Z job seekers — who, by the way, account for most of the new talent pool today.
- By celebrating women in the workplace, you embrace diversity and build a more inclusive environment, which according to McKinsey, makes the organization 21% more likely to achieve above-average profitability.
Now that we’ve covered a little history and given you a few reasons to celebrate, let’s get into how you can celebrate the month with some interactive and educational activities. 👏
1. Learn about women artists 🖼
When you think of famous artists, the first names that come to mind are likely Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gough, Claude Monet, or Salvador Dali, to name a few. But how many women-identifying artists can you name? Broaden your knowledge of the inspiring women who have shaped art history all over the world with a virtual museum exploration!
A global art tour with a knowledgeable guide is a great diversity and inclusion activity to learn about famous women from different backgrounds. Plus, it brings museum programming to team members who don't have the same access where they live!
How to get started 👉 Celebrate trailblazing women with an Exploring Women in Art class today! 🎨
2. Host a movie or book club 📚
Encourage employees to gather for a movie club to learn real-life stories from women in literature and film. Choose a movie to watch or book to read as a team, and find time to gather at your local coffee shop over lunch for some meaningful dialogue and discussion. Engaging in an educational discussion serves as an excellent professional development activity for the diversity calendar.
Gathering with colleagues to discuss stories from diverse backgrounds encourages employees to share complex ideas and build better communication within the team.
How to get started 👉 Make some popcorn and learn from Diverse Women in Film! 🎥
3. Play some team building trivia 🧠
Celebrate, and create a safe space for competitive team building, with a round of trivia all about Women's history! Feature questions about the works of female authors, activists, and other historical figures, as well as fun pop history about TV, music, and movies!
Trivia is a great team building experience for small groups and remote teams to work together, and learn something new at the same time!
How to get started 👉 Buzzers ready? Recognize women and their achievements in Women's History Trivia!
4. Wear purple 💜
Colors have a unique meaning in celebrations, and purple is Women's History Month's color. Celebrate International Women's Day, or month, with a splash of purple in the office! This is an easy employee engagement opportunity for your diverse workforce to show solidarity with the female employees in your office.
We always recommend direct action first, but this is a great idea to combine with the others on this list!
In addition to other inclusion and diversity activities for Celebrating Women's History Month, wearing purple is the simplest way to show off a unified and inclusive work environment!
Pro-planning tip 👉 Switch up the décor with purple accents, make purple Zoom backgrounds, and encourage everyone to wear some purple during March.
Celebrate women all year long with Confetti 📆
Our company likes to take the “year-long” celebration approach – aka, we’re always championing our outstanding women on the team.
We go out of our way to source from women-owned businesses. Our gender equity efforts include comprehensive healthcare options for all women and gender-non-conforming employees to cover their medical needs.
And, did you know? Confetti is comprised of 64% women employees, with 70% of our leadership team being women (not even counting our CEO!).
Of course, there’s always more to do. But, empowering the individuals who work with us is always at the forefront of our plans, and diversity and inclusion activities are a great place to start!
Celebrate Women's History Month with a team building activity from Confetti!
