A note from our co-founder and CEO
It’s International Women’s Day. A day when LinkedIn feeds get flooded with posts about closing the gender pay gap, equality and empowerment.
Brilliant! Because why wouldn’t we celebrate something rooted in acknowledging women’s contributions to all aspects of their lives.
But I can’t help wondering… how many of these are just obligatory once-a-year LinkedIn posts or social stunts? How many are coming from businesses delivering *actual meaningful action*, not just meaningless noise?
By definition, we’re talking about one day. But it shouldn’t really be just one day…
At Smarts, we champion a Cultural Endurance Model™ that measures our clients’ success based on delivering lasting relevance – not flashbulb fame. If we’re truly living our values, then our own commitment to gender equality and gender equity has to be long-term.
So what does that commitment look like? Well, we continue to hire and promote great women – 79% of our workforce is female, 70% of all hires within the last year have been women, and 79% of our leadership roles are held by women.
I can honestly say we’re doing our best to credibly invest in all those who identify as women 365 days of the year, but we know we’re not perfect and – as one of our two female co-founders – it’s a pursuit that’ll always be really important to me.
So how do we deliver lasting relevance that goes beyond just celebrating women today? To help me answer that – and reflect this year’s theme of Accelerating Action – I asked the women of Smarts “What’s the one action, big or small, you believe is crucial to accelerating progress?
Check out some of their responses here:
Happy International Women’s Day, Pippa
