If you’re anything like we are, you revel in the solidarity that days like International Women’s Day bring to the ladies in your life.
Whether you’re laughing over tea with your female friends, marching in the street with your fellow woman warriors, or you’re lounging at home in a self care (because you deserve it) evening—you’re doing the day justice.
You probably know this if you follow us at all, but Annmarie Skin Care is a predominantly women-run company—and when I say “predominant,” what I actually mean is that we have three men on our team of 20.
Yep, ladies run the show at Annmarie Skin Care—and we have days like today to thank.
History of International Women’s Day
The first “Women’s Day” was celebrated in the US only in 1909, but it didn’t take long to catch on. By 1911, Women’s Day was an international sensation—and it’s been going strong ever since. (Though the yearly March 8th date wasn’t actually confirmed until 1975).
While we’ve used this day to celebrate women and the incredible strides we’ve made as a society to hold the feminine in equal appreciation as the masculine, Women’s Day is historically (and currently) a platform for protest.
The first was a protest against working conditions in garment factories in the US and since then International Women’s Day has been used to speak out against everything from war to voting rights to education—and a whole lot more.
Even now women, and men-allies, don their pink caps and walk the streets in solidarity for things like equal pay in the workplace, the right to access to health care, and to live in a safe society free of discrimination.
How We Celebrate International Women’s Day
Since most people on our team are women, and we all have our own female-filled networks, you’ll find a whole myriad of ways we hold this day in reverie. Some of us march in the streets, others have dinner with fem friends or donate to a great cause like the Malala Fund.
This International Women’s Day, we’re taking the time to honor the beautiful, inspirational women in our lives—our mothers, sisters, partners, teachers, friends. We asked everyone on the team to reach out to the women that inspire them to be their own advocate—to have a one on one conversation, share a hug, or just let them know they’re special.
The Women that Inspire Us
Since we want to keep the personal moments personal, we decided to share a few women from our blog that inspire us all. Every month we highlight a different woman on our blog, we’ve been doing it for years in our Beautiful Voices series and we wanted to take the time to highlight a few for you today. These are the stories of four resilient women from the series whose stories really speak to us.
Muzeeza Ahmed: Healing to Heal Others.
“Your answers are within. Nearly all the healing work I have done in my life that had profound results has involved me looking inward. Healing what is inside me created the world outside me that I really wanted to live in.”
Debra Anzalone: Mother Extraordinaire.
“Where there is great love, there are always miracles. There are always blessings in our trials and tribulations; the beauty is in seeing them.”
Connie Trowbridge: Creating Miracles.
“Beauty is created when we give someone a hug, help someone with their groceries, hold a child’s hand, or make our family a meal. Your actions—the way you live your life—creates beauty all around us.”
Stephanie Wontorski: Journey to Wellness.
“When I am connected to nature, I feel a sense of wellbeing. We spend so much time indoors working and doing our day to day tasks that it is important to get out into nature on a daily basis just to reconnect.”
Beautiful article 🙂