Frida Kahlo. Oprah Winfrey. Malala Yousafzai. Simply seeing these names instantly gives you a feeling of awe, pride, and inspiration. This month gives us the perfect opportunity to act on these feelings and honor the women in our lives, learn about remarkable women that changed the world, and champion the modern-day sheroes including the women in work from home companies.

International Women’s Day

On the 8th of this month, International Women’s Day will be celebrated all around the world. It is a global celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women that took place for the first time on March 8, 1911. It has since grown from being a week-long celebration of women’s contributions to culture, history, and society to a whole month of recognizing their numerous feats in igniting positive change.

Celebrating Women in work from home companies

You might be asking, what does a trivial event have to do with remote work set-ups? Isn’t it a movement that’s usually taken to the streets? International Women’s Day is not exclusive to demonstrations or public tributes. It also has a lot to do with the remote work and anywhere where women are present. In fact, giving importance to company’s social responsibility should be part of the plan when you start building your business.

As a business owner, it would do you good if you not only think about performance targets and financial returns, but your social responsibility as well. Part of that responsibility is establishing a culture at your work from home company that supports gender equality and fights against discrimination. While you’re deciding on new hires or how to outsource for your business, you must also consider how you can create a work from home environment that supports women in their careers and empowers them to work toward their goals.

Working from home and Herstory

How is it possible to celebrate women in remote companies? We’re glad you asked. Here are some ideas on how to celebrate International Women’s Day and the women-in-work-from-home companies.

  1. Send empowering quotes. The internet is a wonderful thing. It connects us to each other and offers robust storage of knowledge. You can search for quotes online about women and share them with your work from home network all month-long. Sharing your girl-dominated playlist won’t hurt and can even lessen stress for women while working from home.
  2. Share links to articles or books. If you want to inspire the ladies in your work from home team, even more, share the rich stories about women that you’ll find online. You’ll find a myriad of articles everywhere from the likes of The New York Times to a wealth of books that deal with the beauty and struggles of being a woman. What’s great about this is that you can build rapport and bond with your team over your virtual water cooler. You can talk about the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood or the adventures of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. It’s a guarantee that a month won’t be enough to share all the titles that you can find.
  3. Hold viewing parties. Leverage the power of the internet and watch talks or documentaries on women in work from home companies. You can choose from these TED Talks available on Youtube or a documentary like Girl Rising. You can dedicate 30 minutes every day to watch one video with the team. Sessions like this can spark conversations about self-love and inspire women to foster change in their own way.
  4. Show your appreciation. Send Thank You e-cards to all the women work from home companies. You can send cards not only to your colleagues but also to all the special women who are close to you. You will be surprised how much this simple act of gratefulness can fill a woman’s heart and brighten her day. It can also be a pay-it-forward type of initiative that will aim to spread the message of how extraordinary women are beyond their homebased jobs.
  5. Let women treat themselves. Encourage the ladies to write love notes to themselves. You can ask them to think about their achievements and write down what they think makes them remarkable. It can be an activity just like Google’s #IamRemarkable initiative that seeks to empower women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments. It may seem silly at first, but it’s a fulfilling experience that can lead to the rediscovery of self-love and finding the voice to proclaim it.

There are many other ways to celebrate women and a whole month will not be enough. If you are interested to know how you can incorporate this aspect of social responsibility in your company, let managed outsourcing firm HOPLA help you shape it. HOPLA joins this worldwide celebration in making every day a means to celebrate women in a work from home company or anywhere in the world. Happy International Women’s Day!