What a difference a year makes. Women around the world are again making our collective voices heard on International Women’s Day. But this day, this year, our voices sound different. Stronger. Steadier. More powerful.

We are experiencing the dawn of a new era for gender equality — in companies, across industries, throughout communities and around the world. We have a long way to go, but one thing is certain: We cannot look back. We’re not going that way.

Beehive is committed to advancing gender equality in business, today and every day. We are a business founded, owned and led by women. It is more than a value we live. It’s a core belief. It’s who we are and how our business operates in the world.

We are pressing for progress on three paths: inside, outside and across our industry.

• Inside, Beehive has updated and expanded all policies related to equality, diversity and inclusion. We have re-articulated our company values to ensure each clearly states expectations for our team members, partners and clients. Our business decisions will be rigorously filtered through our values screen to ensure our actions align to our beliefs.
• In the community, we are expanding our partnership with The BrandLab to host “Fearless Conversations.” The workshops are designed to address unconscious bias in the workplace. Over the last year, we have donated time and funds to fuel organizations that are helping women rise and lead in their communities and careers. Recipients include Women Winning, Women Venture, Dress For Success Twin Cities and Women’s Advocates.
• Across our industry, we are leading PR Council’s SHEquality Project in Minnesota. Beehive hosted the Twin Cities inaugural meeting, bringing together top women leaders from five communications firms to discuss gender equality in leadership. Women are 70% of our industry’s current workforce but hold just 30% of the top positions, according to PR Council’s data. We must do better.

Equality is at the heart of Beehive’s purpose: to use the power of communication to build better businesses for a better world. Organizations that prioritize and advance gender equality, diversity and inclusion do better by every measure. And when businesses do better, we all do better. Jobs are created, economies grow. Everything rises.

Beehive will keep #PressingforProgess in 2018 and beyond, and we’ll update you along the way through our blog and social channels. We invite you to share your actions and ideas as well on any of our social channels or by dropping me an email at lhannum@beehivepr.biz. Let’s inspire one another to continue to think in new ways.