International Women's Day

Deloitte is proud to support International Women's Day 2008

We have made significant progress with our talent agenda over the last 12 months. Our dedicated talent partner reports to the Executive on a range of people-related measures as we strive to ensure that everyone enjoys the best possible career opportunities, reward and recognition.

Engaging our people is vital to us and we communicate through a number of mechanisms that include our annual People Survey, roadshows and formal feedback processes. Our well-established 'Connections' programme brings together over 200 partners in structured conversations about the firm's strategy with managers and senior managers from outside of their own area of business.

What our people think of us
Each year we conduct a survey of commitment levels and seek feedback from our people about what is important to them. For the second year running commitment levels have increased across all parts of the business and at all grades of staff:
- 80% of our people participated in our annual People Survey, up from 77% last year and 57% two years ago
- 89% of our people strongly believe Deloitte is a client-focused firm (88% in 2005)
- for the second year running, 93% of our people would recommend Deloitte to clients
- 82% of our people are proud to tell others they are a part of Deloitte, up from 77% in 2005

TOP COMPANIES SUPPORTING WOMEN & IWD
Many companies have actively supported International Women's Day and women's advancement for many years. This is essential if they are to recruit and retain the best female talent, sell their products/services to them, and see more women investing in them. Below are some of the leading companies from around the world supporting women's advancement and IWD. Read what these companies do every day that continuously sets them apart in terms of their competitive committment to women.

Large organisations such as HSBC have a responsibility to ensure progressive and fair work environments for their employees. We also have a responsibility to support and develop the communities that we serve - a commitment we take very seriously. The issue of Women's Development and Equality is firmly on the corporate agenda.

At HSBC we see gender diversity as more than a responsibility. We understand that it is just good business sense and is critical to our corporate success. Our Board is one of the most international in the world and has three female directors, more than most of the world's leading companies.

Globally, International Women's Day recognises women's diverse local contributions and inspires potential in other women. It is an opportunity for us to reflect on what women have achieved and also to consider what still remains to be done.

HSBC is a progressive employer
HSBC has many initiatives aimed at recruiting, retaining and developing female talent. Read about these at wheretowork.com/hsbc .

In the UK, we've recently launched an award-winning new childcare scheme that allows working parents to balance work and home responsibilities. We've already had more than 1,000 employees join the scheme and have been named NSPCC's family friendly employer of the year by "WORKING FAMILIES" - a charitable organisation dedicated to helping people achieve a balance between home and working life. Worldwide, our Hong Kong Office offers the only child day care centre of any commercial organisation in Hong Kong.

One of our most recent projects is a global programme by the Education Trust and Students in Free Enterprise to provide financial literacy education to women entrepreneurs and young people.

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.

The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:

1909

In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913.

1910

The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

1911

As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen the previous year, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.

1913-1914

As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.

1917

With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and peace". Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway. The rest is history: Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.

Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women's Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights.