Nathan is celebrating International Women’s Day today by participating in a variety of activities to demonstrate Nathan’s commitment to recognizing and elevating women’s empowerment across the globe, including in our own offices.

Susan B. Chodakewitz, Nathan President and CEO, was named a “Top 20 Global Woman of Excellence” by U.S. Representative Danny K. Davis for his 6th annual International Women’s Day event. Ms. Chodakewitz is a vocal supporter of women’s economic empowerment, frequently speaking on panels and at lectures on women in leadership in business and in STEM. She has previously been recognized for her leadership, receiving the “Leadership in Business” award at the Women’s Center Leadership Conference in 2014 and the “Women Who Mean Business” award from Washington Business Journal in 2011.

From 10:30 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. Eastern, Nathan will facilitate discussion on Twitter about women’s inclusion in STEM education and careers. The discussion is part of a four-hour Twitter chat hosted by the SEEP Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group for International Women’s Day. Other topics throughout the day, led by a range of organizations, include the role of technology in supporting women-led SMEs, the power of involving women in the solutions to energy challenges, and the challenges facing young women entering the workforce in non-traditional careers. Please use the #IWDWEEChat hashtag to follow the conversation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce held its eighth annual International Women’s Day Forum this past Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Ann Katsiak, Vice President at Nathan, facilitated a dynamic panel at the forum focused on Transforming Health for Women and Girls. The session included several distinguished speakers, including U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy Ambassador Deborah Birx.

Lis Meyers, an expert in women’s economic empowerment and recently hired by Nathan as a Managing Associate, chairs the SEEP working group which organized the Twitter chat and also attended the International Women’s Day Forum. On March 20th, she will be participating in a webinar on quality and affordable childcare as a factor in women’s economic empowerment worldwide.

Nathan’s Gender Work: A Roundup from IWD 2017 to IWD 2018

Nathan continues to advance women’s empowerment across our projects through a range of programs and activities, from researching the ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in Asia, to providing policy solutions supporting women’s health as a catalyst for increasing workforce development. Through all of our work, Nathan empowers women economically, socially, and politically to unleash their unbounded potential to affect change in their communities.

We use data-driven solutions to measure women’s empowerment and gauge what works and what doesn’t. For example, in September, we saw our APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard utilized by the APEC Policy Support Unit in their 2017 update to show progress the Asia-Pacific region has made in women’s economic engagement.

Beyond data, we are adept at gathering holistic information about what inhibits or encourages women to participate fully in their societies, such as through our social and gender inclusion assessment in Cote d’Ivoire and our work in Senegal, Kosovo, and Nepal to examine women’s contributions in the energy sector.

Nathan also recently finalized the 2017 update of the APEC Women in Transportation Compendium of Best Practices, which highlights how governments and businesses across the Asia-Pacific are boosting women’s employment in the transportation sector.

Nathan is proud of our commitment to advancing women’s economic empowerment and all we have accomplished by integrating gender into our projects around the world. We look forward to continuing to move this important work forward in the years to come.