March 8, 2023 is International Women's Day

Today is International Women's day 2023, and it is a time to celebrate women and girls, and to help achieve equality for women worldwide.

According to the WHO,

I am delighted to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day with you in recognition of women and girls championing the advancement of transformative digital technology.

This year’s theme, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality,” highlights the role of innovative technology in promoting gender equality and meeting the health and developmental needs of women and girls.

In the 21st century, it is the perfect time to highlight what women and girls can do with technology and innovation. This is a great theme for this year!

When I think of women who have contributed to technology and innovation, I think of the movie Hidden Figures, which talks about women doing work in NASA's space program. This is a story of real women who each made a difference doing work that helped astronauts get into space.

According to Astrobites,

The 2016 movie and book Hidden Figures, brought to light the many contributions of black women to astrophysics. The book Hidden Figures highlights the experiences of three specific black women: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, and the movie brought their stories to an even larger audience. These women led extraordinary lives that were often overshadowed by the accomplishments of their white male colleagues. This representation of black women in astrophysics has been immeasurably important in showing young women and people of color that they can overcome obstacles and succeed in astrophysics.

If you haven't watched this movie, I would highly recommend it. You can even watch it with your teen daughters, and talk to them about what they can learn from these inspirational women in the movie.

There are many other women throughout history who have made amazing contributions, and today we can celebrate them and each other, and teach our daughters about how women can do amazing things, even without a level playing field with men.

We can also learn about how to help women and girls in other countries who may not have the same luxuries as we do in terms of education, and social and political rights.

You can also help your daughters celebrate women's history month all throughout the month of March by teaching them about other inspirational women in your own life, and those who have inspired you.

You can teach them about other famous women in technology history,

• Ada Lovelace

• Margaret E. Knight

• Grace Hopper

• Lynne Conway

• Jean Jennings Bartik

• Shafi Goldwasser

• Carol Shaw

• Susan Kare

• Anita Borg

• Rita Perlman

There are many other famous and influential women that you can teach your girls to look up to as well.

It is also great to have them think of women in their own lives that they find inspiring, such as family, friends, teachers, doctors and other women that they come in contact with on a daily basis. Then, they can take it a step farther and write a thank you note or card for these women for the impact that they make.

We are all a community of women, all unique in our own ways, and all making a contribution to our world in a diverse array of ways. The more women can lift each other up, help each other, mentor each other, and find ways to celebrate our successes together, the more we can make women equals in society.