This International Women’s Day (and every day), we’re saying no to the cupcakes and other tokenistic gestures.

Cupcakes are delicious, don’t get us wrong. But women want and deserve more from their workplaces. There’s so many ways businesses can show their appreciation and support for their female employees that extends well beyond International Women’s Day, including (but definitely not limited to):

✔️ Investing in them and their careers with training and conferences. This is actually the United Nations theme for International Women’s Day in 2024 – Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress

✔️ Tracking their company’s gender pay gap (whether they’ve had to legally disclose this information or not) and make a plan to narrow the gap

✔️ Having targets for female management and leaders in the company and a leadership path for current female employees

✔️ Putting women into the rooms where they’re going to get the contacts and opportunities to progress their careers

✔️ Creating a culture that truly supports working mums. Think flexibility, job sharing and true part time work (not a full time workload with a part time label)

And if your workplace is not willing to go beyond a gesture, it’s time to be your own biggest support and get the career progression you deserve.