Happy International Women’s Day! I love seeing so many posts on LinkedIn today celebrating the stories and accomplishments of the remarkable women in our lives, from our families, our friends, mentors, colleagues, peers, and women we may not know but admire. We should do this everyday :).

I am also enjoying posts from people using their voices to raise awareness and amplify areas for improvement and change. Because let’s be real – we still have a long way to go.

As I was thinking about what to write today, I kept going back to these stats:

In 2023, female CEOs now run more than 10% of Fortune 500 companies for the first time in the list’s 68 year history. Yes, this is a positive trend as it keeps increasing YoY, but we’re still only at 53 out of 500. Source: https://www.shrm.org/executive/resources/pages/women-fortune-500-2023.aspx

In contrast, research from Spencer Stuart found that women outnumbered men for the first time in CMO role at 51% per an analysis of the Ad Age top 100 advertisers in 2021. I couldn’t find the 2022 data, but if you have it, send it! Source: https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/cmo-tenure-study-women-outnumber-men-for-first-time-in-cmo-role

The gender pay gap still exists, with women earning 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. This is US based data and has remained stable for about two decades (!!!), according to Pew Research. Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20women%20earned%20an,80%25%20as%20much%20as%20men

Women-founded startups raised 1.9% of all VC funds in 2022, a drop from 2021, according to data from Pitchbook. This is US data and accounts to around $4.5 billion out of around the $238.3 billion in venture capital allocated. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/18/women-founded-startups-raised-1-9-of-all-vc-funds-in-2022-a-drop-from-2021/

I also discovered a positive trend that I am proud to be part of driving the change – the rise in female authors:

Women are now publishing more books than men. Women have gone from publishing just 18% of books in the 1960s to more than half today, driving up revenue and diversifying readership. By 2021, female-authored books sold more copies on average than those written by men. Source: https://qz.com/women-are-now-publishing-more-books-than-men-and-its-go-1850177492

In my opinion, today is equally a day of celebration as it is a rally cry to keep raising awareness for how far we still have to go.

A big, heartfelt thank you to all of the incredible women – and men – in my life who are always there to support and remind me to keep striving for more.