All around the world, International Women’s Day represents an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater equality. Make It Happen is the 2015 theme for our internationalwomensday.com global hub, encouraging effective action for advancing and recognizing women.

Each year International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. The first International Women’s Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organizations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women’s groups, corporations and the media celebrate the day.

This is taken from the IWD website and as I prepare to participate today in the East Gwillimbury Women in Business luncheon celebrating IWD 2015, I wanted to take a moment to reflect. I had no idea that this has been a recognized day since 1911! What a transformation our world has experienced in equality for women and yet we all know there is a ways to go in a number of countries. I do not want to reflect on the political or social situations today however; my reflections are more about the importance of women in my life.

Sheryl Kraft sums it up quite beautifully here from the research she completed for her book, “Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend“:

Q. Why are women’s friendships so complicated? I don’t want to be assumptive or come off as sexist, but when I observe the friendships my husband or sons have, they just seem so much easier—without all the “stuff.” That’s not to say men don’t value their friends or love them as much as we love ours, though, is it?

A. Of course, it’s difficult to compare friendships because everyone is so different. Yet as a group, female friendships are a different animal compared to male ones. Female friendships are imbued with intimacy; many anthropologists describe them as face-to-face as compared to male ones, which have been described as side-to-side. Men do things together, whether it’s playing golf or cards or watching a football game on TV. The most important thing for women is to share, talk and just be together. There have been some studies that suggest that these differences may be inborn. Girl babies are more interested in facial expression than are boys. So when female friendships fall apart, it’s serious stuff because we put so much of ourselves into our friendships.

As a mother of 3 sons, I can relate completely to this. Women have always been there for me to share the questions of life and bring comfort as I work through expressing what I may be experiencing in my life at any given time. Of course, friendships come and go throughout the course of our life, however the value always remains. I am so grateful for all the women in my life starting with my family, then lifelong friends, my chorus members, women’s circle participants, acquaintances, mentors, business colleagues and community and world leaders. We do make things happen.

Thank you to all the women in my life. Thank you for those taking time to read this. May you be blessed and experience Joy, Love and Peace enough to sustain you through any challenges. Together we can “Make it Happen”.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone, leave a comment here on the site or click the contact tab at the bottom of the screen if you are reading this post on the website.

Until next time,

Karen