What International Women’s Day Means to HR in 2025

Who run the world? Adult women in the workplace, if you’re in HR. 

Women account for 76% of human resources roles in the US, which illustrates a specific irony when considering the outsized amount of emotional labor, event planning, DEIB programming, pay equity, and conflict management relegated to HR. 

Where would we be in the working world without women doing so much behind the scenes? And what will we lose if we stop empowering them to lead? We already know women are much more than hand-holders from 9 to 5. The American Psychological Association found that when women are in charge, organizations see higher rates of team collaboration, perceptions of fairness, and employee inspiration with regards to mission. That's quite the business case for women in leadership.

This International Women’s Day, we’re taking stock of the current state of women’s empowerment, and reflecting on why this work is so important right now. 

Reality Check: Where are we right now? 

Women make up the vast majority of HR, but only 29% of all C-suite positions — and only 7% are women of color, according to McKinsey’s most recent Women in the Workplace Report. 

This means women are largely accountable for doing the groundwork for employees’ most sensitive needs, like pay, promotions, and layoffs — but they aren’t considered or empowered to be part of executive decision-making.

In every category in the chart above, women have made visible gains in representation. Yet the report found that “women’s outlook and day-to-day experiences are not much different, or are even worse, than they were nearly a decade ago.”

How can that be? Well, when you consider the forces beyond the office that have shaped the past ten years of American workplaces, a few things come to mind: 

• The gender pay gap has narrowed only slightly: Women earn 85 cents for every dollar earned by a man — compared to 81 cents per dollar in 2003. In the same report, half of adults cited women being treated differently than men by employers, while another 42% said it’s because women make different choices about childcare.
• Childcare responsibilities largely fall to women: Four times as many women as men left the workforce in the fall of 2020, primarily citing childcare needs, according to the Center for American Progress. In 2023, women were 5x more likely than men to cite “caring for others” as a reason they were not in the workforce (50% vs. 9%), according to data from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
• Reproductive rights are disappearing: When the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, a few high-profile companies revised their coverage policies to support employees' access to safe routes for reproductive care. But an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed a whopping 90% of large firms reduced or eliminated their coverage. 
• Company commitments to DEIB are falling: In Lattice’s 2025 State of People Strategy Report, DEIB took a dive on HR’s list of priorities, from 29% to 15% over three years. Pair that with a flurry of executive orders in January 2025, and companies have fewer consequences — and more pressure — to drop the ball.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Despite the odds, women have made significant advances we can all celebrate: 

• Education and pay: Women make up more than half the college-educated workforce in the US, according to Pew Research Center data. And in the 25-34 age group, women make 95 cents for every dollar a man earns. 
• Political power: In 2024, Sarah McBride made history as the first transgender person elected to US Congress. Her priorities in office are “affordable child care, paid family and medical leave, housing, health care, reproductive freedom.” The average share of women in government worldwide has more than doubled in 30 years, from 11% in 1995 to 26% in 2024.
• The care economy: In 2024, the Credit for Caring Act was introduced in Congress, which, if passed, could give eligible caregivers a tax credit of up to $5,000 for expenses incurred while caregiving.

Moving Forward Together: Where do we go from here?

The United Nations’ theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.”  

Even though much of the data cited above is beyond HR’s control, this theme reminds us that there’s room for all of us to lean in where we can, and ensure no one gets left behind. In fact, the theme for Women’s History Month in the US is “Moving Forward Together.” So what does that look like for HR? 

• Ensuring paid leave and flexibility for everyone. When men have access to paid leave, caregiving is less likely to fall exclusively to women. Flexible work policies help parents and caregivers to share the load, stay employed, and do their best work.
• Including trans women in workplace initiatives for women’s empowerment. Trans women are women — full stop. Using “female” as a descriptor is unnecessary and exclusive; no one in the workplace is referring to men as “males,” anyway. 
• Promoting women of color just as often as anyone else. Right now, only 54 Black women are promoted for every 100 white men, compared to 89 white women, according to McKinsey’s report. Internal mobility promotes company loyalty, expands institutional knowledge, and helps more marginalized groups see themselves at the top.
• Committing openly to DEIB initiatives. Encouraging employees to join your existing ERGs is great, but still puts the burden of empowerment on employees. Make sure your ERG leaders are compensated for the extra work, that programming is funded by the company, and that executives are actively engaged in the work. Every leader should be a champion of DEIB, not just the lone HR practitioner.

6 HR Leaders on International Women’s Day in 2025

We asked HR leaders what International Women’s Day means to them this year, in light of ongoing efforts to dismantle DEIB. We welcomed responses from all genders — the advancement of women impacts everyone, and the empowerment of any group depends on people being willing to embrace and champion their needs. Simply, it takes a village. Their responses have been edited for punctuation only.

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