International Women’s Day with Accenture and Deloitte

March 8th, 2009 marked the 98th International Women’s Day. The concept of this commemorative day began in 1910 at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. Clara Zetkin, leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day and proposed that there should be one day every year where women can celebrate and press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries unanimous approved the suggestion. International Women’s Day has since spread by word of mouth and in 2009, the day was recognised with 984 registered events across 64 countries led by governments, companies and organisations. Deloitte and Accenture are two such companies.
Accenture celebrated the day by bringing together a wide range of speakers from various industries in the panel discussions “Unprecedented times! Breaking through the economic downturn” and “Stretch Yourself: Achieving 50:50 in the Boardroom by 2020”. Also, a number of workshops and networking activities under the overall theme of “Stretch yourself” were offered.
Deloitte paid tribute to the 77,500 women from Deloitte member firms around the world with a global webcast in which a panel, including Global CEO Jim Quigley, discussed the challenges and opportunities for women in current state of the economy. Also, local branch initiatives such as podcasts, events and leadership workshops were held to commemorate the day.

english gender globality internationality inclusion