Gender equality seems like a given when we consider all the brilliant women of Cheshire and Manchester who have high profile careers spanning the law, commerce, education, the arts, fashion, the media and more.
And yet the World Economic Forum reckons that at the current rate of progress, it will take 134 years, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity in 2158.
It’s this shock statistic which has fuelled the theme of International Women’s Day on March 8th which is Accelerate Action. It’s a call to action which urges everyone to take swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality and calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
International Women’s Day may appear on the surface to a be a recent phenomenon but in fact, it dates back more than a century, long before the feminists were burning bras and demanding equality in the 1960s.
In 1909 an “International Woman’s Day” was first proposed by an activist called Theresa Malkiel and it was loosely based on the urban legend commemorating a protest by women garment workers in New York City, on March 8, 1857.
On March 19, 1911, International Women’s Day was officially marked for the first time. More than one million people celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Women demanded the right to vote, to fight against sex discrimination in the workplace, and to hold public office.
Ever since then International Women’s Day has gained momentum and with the advent of the internet, the message has a wider reach than ever before.
To help to literally speed up gender equality, International Women’s Day 2025 will highlight ways in which people can take steps to impact on the advancement of women – they include:
• Calling out stereotypes
• Challenging discrimination
• Celebrating women’s success
• Questioning bias
• Sharing knowledge
Frodsham-based Jodie Salt, who helps women achieve their full potential with her executive coaching and feminine leadership business explains how she views the issues women are facing.

“Whilst there’s the obvious things to focus on when it comes to gender equality, specifically in terms of processes or policies that need to be introduced, as an Executive Coach (specialising in women in leadership) and behavioural change expert, I think it’s also important to make some more subtle culture shifts but that would have a big impact,” she says.
“Let’s just take the workplace as an example. It is and always has been a male coded environment, made by men, for men, in the context of acceptable behaviour. This has all been based on masculine energy e.g. task focused, logical, outcome driven, competitive etc.
“As we evolve in the 21st century, people, especially women, would benefit from being led and working in conditions that are based on more feminine energy traits such as intuition, emotional intelligence, collaboration, creativity – regardless of whether their manager is a woman or a man.
“Fewer women would leave jobs, suffer from burnout and have the opportunity to thrive and have balance in their life and work,” she concludes.
Another Cheshire woman involved in promoting the achievements of women is Jacqueline Hughes Lundy.

Jacqueline from Hale has spent over 30 years working to promote and support women through the Inspiring Women Awards network.
She is now embarking on a quest to recognise and develop the potential of women in their Third Quarter.
She explains: “With life expectancy raising from 68 in the 1950s to 81 in the 2000s (Macrotrends), women in the 50-75 age group are behaving very differently to their mothers. A quick Google of ‘Women in their 50s-70s lifestyles/economic activities’ leads you to sites such as: Mature Women Dating, Buy Dresses for Older Women and Best Wigs for Older Women. Articles don’t fare much better, concentrating on the crisis side of this age group – failing health, empty nests, isolation and lack of purpose.
“Is this what Third Quarter women must look forward to?
“Thankfully not, and I’m not alone in finding this stage of life, with all its potential, exciting. According to Forbes, women in their 50+s are not disappearing into a sherry fuelled haze wearing dodgy wigs and scouring mature online dating sites but seizing the opportunity to reinvent themselves by embracing entrepreneurship. Oh, and by the way, 80% Of Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women Are 50+”
She says: “According to Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a thought leader specialising in gender and generational balance and who explored the concept of us experiencing four quarter lives in her book Thriving to 100: “The majority of men hit the big-time power and influencing positions in their 50s and 60s (the tech sector being the notable exception). And because most women still madly juggle the impossible contradictions of capitalism, careers and care (of children, elders, spouses, and anyone else who needs them) in Q2, they tend to blossom a tad later, on average. They have less linear, ‘squigglier’ careers, and then suddenly explode from the sidelines, raring to go once their Q2-caring-priorities are satisfactorily completed”.
Jacqueline is now joining forces with another Third Quarter woman, Leadership & Change Expert, Claire-Marie Boggiano in developing ways to support locally & Internationally Third Quarter Women wanting to embrace all the benefits of this stage and thus ‘explode from the sidelines’.
International Women’s Day March 8th 2025