While International Women’s Day started in Europe in March 1911, we only started celebrating the day on March 8, 1977, when the United Nations officially recognized it. It is important to remember that this day focuses on women’s rights globally and there are still many parts of the world where women do not have the freedoms already that we are accustomed to in Western society. We support International Women’s Day for them as well, not just for our community.
As AutomatedBuildings, this is a moment to celebrate the invaluable contributions of women in our industry, particularly those shaping our industry and building automation environment. AutomatedBuildings has been dedicating its March issue on International Women’s Day since 2020, however since we’ve moved to the new platform, the content is now delivered as it comes in, not monthly. Our last monthly post was March 2023.
This year, the International Women’s Day theme is “Inspire Inclusion,” and so for the next 7 days (until 8 March 2024), we are going to feature one of our inspiring women contributing editors pinned at the top of the page. Of course, this will not impact AutomatedBuildings releasing news and articles as they come in; it just means the new content will be under the pinned feature. We hope that seeing and reading these women will inspire you to think of another woman who needs to be included. We are always looking for new contributing editors for example, perhaps you know someone we should all be hearing from?
On that note, one woman who has inspired me is my mom, Jane. From working as a Computer Technician in the late ’60s (actually called Data Processing using paper tape and cards), then supporting Sinclair Energy Services (SES) in 1975 (on a Pet computer and a 300 baud modem), and then co-founding Automatedbuildings in 1999 and supporting its growth for 24 years, Mom inspired me to keep chasing the intellectual and professional side of my interests while remaining focused on family and community. She was the OG WFH legend in the 1980s, ensuring she could work in the SES business at home, so she was there when my sister and I came home off the school bus.
Hope this week you find some inspiration from our series, or even inspire a woman yourself to get involved, take a chance, and be included in the decisions and discussions they want to.
Kerri
