How to celebrate International Women’s Day is a question many Australian teams ask each year. You want to recognise the day in a way that feels genuine, inclusive, and aligned with your values. You also want to move beyond cupcakes in the kitchen toward actions that improve wellbeing, performance, and belonging year round.
Done well, celebrating International Women’s Day can lift morale, spark meaningful conversations, and catalyse practical changes that support women’s health and performance at work. It can also strengthen culture and show your commitment to equity in a way that attracts and retains great people.
In this guide, we share what the day represents, why it matters for health and performance, and a step by step plan for International Women’s Day how to celebrate with purpose at work and in your community.
What is International Women’s Day?
International Women’s Day is a global day that celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, while calling for accelerated progress toward gender equity. It is an opportunity to recognise progress and to address the gaps that still exist in health, safety, pay, leadership, and access to opportunity. For background and annual themes, see UN Women and Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
Why it Matters
Equity and inclusion are not just moral imperatives. They are performance levers. When people feel safe, respected, and supported, they engage more deeply, think more creatively, and collaborate more effectively. Psychological safety, access to flexible work, and health literate leadership all contribute to better decision making and lower risk of burnout.
Women often carry disproportionate loads both at work and at home. This can compound stress, disrupt sleep, and reduce recovery, which in turn affects immunity, cognitive performance, and long term health. Practical workplace changes can buffer these pressures. Policies that enable flexibility, leaders trained in compassionate communication, and environments that normalise healthful routines help everyone perform at their best.
Research consistently links inclusive practices with improved retention and engagement. Building skills like active listening and compassionate leadership has measurable cultural benefits. For deeper context, explore our articles on supporting women’s wellbeing in the workplace, building psychological safety, and compassionate leadership.
How to Celebrate International Women’s Day With Purpose
1. Set a Clear Intention
Decide what success looks like. Is it raising awareness, building capability, or fixing a barrier your people face. Clear intent keeps the day focused and authentic.
Tip: Pick one theme aligned to your values such as women’s health literacy at work, safe leadership behaviours, or pathways into leadership.
2. Co Design With Your People
Ask women in your organisation what would be most valuable and ensure diversity of voices. Co design reduces tokenism and surfaces real needs.
Tip: Run a short pulse survey and a listening session. Use insights to shape your agenda. See our guide on active listening.
3. Start With Safety And Belonging
Open with a brief reminder of your commitment to respect and psychological safety. Model inclusive language and set ground rules for conversations.
Tip: Leaders can share why the topic matters to them personally to lower the barrier for others to contribute.
4. Host a Practical Learning Session
Choose a session that builds a skill or solves a problem. Examples include energy management for busy professionals, evidence informed strategies for stress, or movement that fits a packed calendar.
Tip: Keep it interactive. Use case studies and simple tools people can apply the same day. Explore our piece on stress management techniques for high performers.
5. Make Health Visible And Accessible
Signal that health is part of high performance, not an afterthought. Provide practical supports that make healthy choices the easy default.
Ideas: Quiet spaces for recovery, a lunchtime walk, nutritious snacks, or a short desk movement session. Our desk exercises at work guide is a quick win.
6. Spotlight Role Models And Allies
Invite women across roles and levels to share short stories of challenge and growth. Include allies who amplify and create space.
Tip: Keep stories brief and real. Focus on habits, supports, and decisions that made a difference.
7. Commit to One System Change
Translate talk into action. Review a policy, meeting norm, or process that affects women’s wellbeing and progression. Then change it.
Examples: Standardise meeting finish times to protect breaks, review flexibility requests fairly, ensure recruitment panels are diverse, and track outcomes. See benefits of flexible working.
8. Support Women’s Specific Health Needs
Normalise conversations about menstrual health, perimenopause, mental load, and return to exercise after illness or life events. Provide evidence informed resources and referrals.
Tip: Share our articles on exercise according to your menstrual cycle and returning to exercise post COVID.
9. Pair Celebration With Service
Combine a celebratory event with a contribution to community. Partner with a local organisation or charity aligned to women’s health, safety, or education.
Tip: Offer a volunteer day or skills based support. Keep it optional and well organised.
10. Measure Impact And Share What You Learned
Close the loop. Capture attendance, feedback, and one change you will sustain. Share results with your people and thank contributors.
Tip: Use a simple before and after pulse on knowledge, confidence, and intent. Our guide on how to measure your employee wellbeing program can help.
Template Agenda For a One Hour Team Session
- Welcome and purpose (five minutes)
- Story spotlight two employees (ten minutes)
- Mini workshop energy habits that support women (twenty minutes)
- Commitment to one change (ten minutes)
- Resources and next steps (five minutes)
- Thanks and connection time (ten minutes)
For Workplaces
What Can Employers do?
- Make intent explicit: Define the purpose of your International Women’s Day how to celebrate activities and link to year round goals.
- Invest in leader capability: Train managers in compassionate conversations and psychological safety. See compassionate leadership and psychological safety.
- Enable access: Offer sessions at varied times, record content, and provide closed captions.
- Remove barriers: Provide childcare support options for events and ensure venues are accessible.
- Back it with policy: Review flexibility, meeting norms, and leave policies through a gender lens. See flexible working.
- Amplify wellbeing supports: Promote coaching, EAP, and health programs in the weeks before and after.
- Measure and iterate: Track engagement and outcomes, then evolve your approach with staff input.
The Role Of Better Being
- Design impactful experiences: We co design events and learning that build real skills.
- Deliver expert sessions: Our coaches run practical workshops on energy, stress, movement, and leadership health.
- Sustain the change: We help you embed habits and measure results across the year.
Key Takeaways
- Knowing how to celebrate International Women’s Day with purpose starts with clear intent and co designing with your people.
- Pair inspiration with practical skills so actions stick beyond the day.
- Small system changes like meeting norms and flexible work create outsized wellbeing gains.
- Leaders set the tone. Compassionate, health literate leadership improves safety and performance.
- Measure impact and share what you learned to build momentum for the year ahead.
If you want support to design a purposeful International Women’s Day and embed wellbeing that lasts, get in touch with Better Being.
