Gunderson Dettmer commemorates Women's History Month and International Women's Day in March 2023 with a series of events across its US offices, access to resources and tribute to this month's theme, #EmbraceEquity.

Themes

The #EmbraceEquity campaign theme seeks to help forge worldwide conversation about this important issue. Despite their etymological similarities, equity and equality are inherently different concepts. Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.

The 2023 International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.” According to research conducted by UNESCO, globally, women and girls are 25% less likely than men and boys to know how to leverage digital technology for basic purposes, 4 times less likely to know how to program computers and 13 times less likely to file for an ICT patent. Women are also significantly less represented in technology-focused jobs with only 12% of AI researchers and 6% of professional software developers globally identifying as female. The World Economic Forum, in conjunction with McKinsey & Company, published an interesting read on Why Bringing Women into Tech Roles is Good for Society which is of particular interest given our role in the United States and global technology and start up industries.

Reflection

Happy International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month!

International Women’s Day is both a day of celebration of the progress made for gender parity as well as a call to action (for a short and easy read on why We Should All Be Feminists we recommend picking up a copy of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s bestselling essay of the same name). - Women's Affinity Group Statement

"International Women’s Day is both a day of celebration of the progress made for gender parity as well as a call to action."

Events

The Gunderson Dettmer Women's Affinity Group will be hosting events to commemorate this month's theme and create connection with women throughout the firm.

EmpowHer: Alumni Panel takes place on March 1^st. EmpowHer is a speaker series highlighting Gunderson women partners and alumni, their professional journeys and their experiences as women in the legal field. In each edition of this series, two women will share a focused discussion around a theme. This alumni edition of the speaker series will feature Michelle Fernandes (Index Ventures) and Jessica Verran-Lingard (Lucasfilm).

International Women’s Day Local Office Celebrations from March 1^st- March 9^th. These celebrations will have food and drinks from various women-owned businesses and spotlight the She Should Run charity, a nonpartisan nonprofit working to dramatically increase the number of women considering a run for public office.

Parental Leave Panel in Local Offices from March 6^th – March 14^th. The Women’s Affinity Group, Parents and Caregivers Affinity Group and International Affinity Group will host this panel to discuss parental leave at Gunderson. This panel includes an awesome group of attorneys looking forward to sharing their parental leave experiences.

Resources

If you are looking for other ways to celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, here are some helpful resources:

• https://womenshistorymonth.gov/
• https://www.catalyst.org/inclusionthrives/
• https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/
• https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
• https://www.diversityincbestpractices.com/web-seminar-womens-history-month-with-deloitte-weconnect-international/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2023/01/26/why-2023-has-to-be-the-year-of-women-in-the-workplace/?sh=519e1af35882
• https://www.nawl.org/
• https://www.bustle.com/life/charity-organizations-donate-womens-history-month
• https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/best-charities-for-womens-empowerment