How to Support Women at Work: An International Women’s Day
Guide That Actually Lands
By Sally Lovett · Founder, Stretching the City. Updated for International Women’s Day 2027.
Most International Women’s Day events at work don’t land. They get planned with the best of intentions: a panel, a poster, a guest speaker on Zoom, a cupcake in the break room. The day comes, the day goes, and a week later nothing inside the organisation is meaningfully different. Mid-career attrition is still happening. The same women are still doing the invisible work. The leadership pipeline still looks the way it looked the year before.
I’ve spent fifteen years inside corporate organisations as the workplace wellbeing person they bring in for these moments — Amazon, the Cabinet Office, Universal Music, Soho House, Charlotte Tilbury and 350+ others. And I’ve watched IWD events succeed and fail in real time.
Here’s what I’ve learned about what makes the difference, and how to plan international womens day workshops and programme an IWD event your audience will still be talking about in May.
Why most IWD events miss the mark
Three patterns show up again and again.
- First, organisations confuse celebration with substance. Celebrating women’s achievements is good. But by itself, it’s an aesthetic — not an intervention. If the rest of the year doesn’t reflect any structural change, the celebration starts to feel performative, and women in the audience know it within the first five minutes.
2. Second, the content is too general. A talk on “women’s empowerment” or “lean in” lands as a panel quote, not a workplace shift. The IWD events that actually move things forward are specific: about invisible work, about mid-career attrition, about menopause, about what changes when the next promotion conversation happens.
3. Third, men aren’t in the room. An IWD event with a women-only audience is great for connection — but for the structural change most organisations claim to want, the leaders making the decisions about culture, hiring, pay and promotion need to be in the room too. Otherwise you’re preaching to a choir that didn’t book the speaker.
What the data tells us (and what to do about it)
The realities of women’s workplace experience aren’t abstract. They’re measurable, and they shape who stays, progresses and leads. A few of the numbers worth sitting with:
- Around one in ten women in the UK have left work due to menopause symptoms. That’s not a small group — it’s roughly 1 million women.
- Approximately one quarter of women don’t return to work within a year of maternity leave. Often the reasons are structural, not personal.
- Women in senior roles consistently report higher burnout than male counterparts. The invisiblework tax doesn’t go away with promotion.
- Female mid-career attrition is one of the largest hidden costs in modern organisations — and one of the rarest items on the strategy slide.
Each one of these is something an IWD event can credibly address. The question is whether the event is designed to point at the specific structural realities, or whether it’s designed to feel good.
“Sally is a truly superb communicator. She navigates sensitive, challenging subject matter with deep
care, thorough consideration, and complete credibility.”
James Stevens, Global Head of Talent Development, Learning & Inclusion | Charlotte Tilbury Beauty
Sally Lovett: Workplace Wellbeing & IWD Keynote Speaker
Founder, Stretching the City. 15 years inside 350+ organisations including Amazon, the Cabinet Office,
Universal Music, Soho House and Charlotte Tilbury.
I built Stretching the City — a workplace wellbeing consultancy — from a one-woman yoga side hustle
over fifteen years, while raising two sons, without external investment, a PR agency, or a business
plan.
I deliver two keynotes for IWD events. Women in the Workplace is the corporate, structural keynote
— invisible work, mid-career attrition, menopause, allyship — built for mixed leadership audiences.
Motherhood & Momentum is the personal, founder-led keynote — building a career or business
alongside motherhood, redefining success in seasons — built for women’s networks and return-towork programmes.
Contributor: The Guardian · The Times · Condé Nast Traveller.
Author: The Wellbeing Guide to London.
Recent stages: IoD Women’s Business Forum with Mariella Frostrup.
How to programme an IWD event that lands
A working framework for planning your international women’s day workshops, from inside 350+ organisations:
- Pick one specific theme, not a buffet. Generic “celebrate women’s achievements” doesn’t move anything. Choose: invisible work and promotion. Menopause and retention. Founders and ambition. Allyship as a leadership skill. Pick one, programme around it, and your event has a chance of being remembered.
- Invite the leadership audience that needs to hear it. If your theme is structural, the structuresetters need to be in the room. Open the event to mixed leadership and frame allyship as a leadership capability, not a women’s-only conversation.
- Book a speaker with operating credibility, not just stage presence. There’s a difference between a speaker who delivers a polished IWD talk and one who has actually built something inside organisations and can name what changes. Bookers feel the difference within the first three minutes.
- Build the follow-on. The keynote is the moment, but the activation is the year. What’s the manager training that follows? What’s the policy review? What’s the women’s network programme that the IWD event launches? Without follow-on, you’re investing in a flash and a flat result.
- Measure something. Pulse the audience after the event for substance, not just satisfaction. Did the talk give them language they didn’t have? Did it change how they think about their own team? Six months later, has anything in the wider system changed? These are reasonable questions to ask.
IWD event formats that work
Keynote
30–45 minutes, mixed audience, structural theme, Q&A or panel afterwards.
The format most organisations book and the format that does the heaviest lifting if the speaker is right.
The women’s network session.
More candid, more personal, smaller audience (50–150). Best for
honest conversation about lived realities — motherhood, ambition, midlife, identity — with the room
composition that allows the candour.
The leadership panel or fireside chat.
30–60 minutes, multiple voices, a strong moderator. Effective when you want different perspectives in the room and an honest conversation. Less effective if the panel is curated for comfort rather than challenge.
The half-day or full-day workshop.
For organisations going deeper. Often combined with manager
training or women’s network programming. Best for organisations treating IWD as the launch of
something, not the something itself.
Popular International Women’s Day Workshops amongst our clients:
International Women’s Day Keynote Speaker
A keynote on women’s careers, sustainable success and what makes IWD events actually land. In this engaging and thought-provoking session, Sally Lovett explores the structural realities shaping women’s careers — invisible work, mid-career attrition, menopause, and the leadership behaviours that quietly determine who stays, progresses and leads. Built for mixed leadership audiences and the IWD conversations organisations are best placed to start. 30–45 minutes plus Q&A.
Panels & Fireside Chats
Curated, moderated conversations that bring wellbeing topics to life. In this multi-voice format, Sally moderates thoughtful discussions between psychologists, coaches, clinicians and lived-experience speakers on topics such as leadership wellbeing, burnout, menopause at work and psychological safety. Designed to spark honest dialogue, offer multiple perspectives in one session, and create the kind of moment audiences talk about for weeks afterwards. 30–60 minutes..
Women in the Workplace Keynote
AUDIENCE: IWD events · Leadership conferences · Women’s networks
Beyond the IWD panel script — invisible work, mid-career attrition, menopause, and the structural shifts that keep women in roles, progressing and leading. Built for mixed leadership audiences, not just for the women in the room. Specific allyship leaders can practice on Monday morning.
Motherhood & Momentum
AUDIENCE: IWD events · Women’s networks · Leadership programmes
An honest, relatable keynote about building a business or career alongside motherhood — from nap-time emails to school-gate strategy calls. The boundaries, mindset shifts and practical realities of holding ambition without guilt, and redefining success in different seasons of life.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome & Self-Doubt
Understanding the patterns of self-doubt — and building genuine workplace confidence. In this engaging and insightful session, we’ll explore why imposter syndrome is so widespread in high-performing teams, how it shows up differently across career stages, the science of self-doubt and confidence, and the evidence-based strategies that actually help at the individual, team and leadership level.
Harnessing Hormones for Success
Understanding, Supporting & Navigating Hormonal Health at Work. In this engaging and insightful session, we’ll explore how your main reproductive hormones—oestrogen, progesterone and stress hormone cortisol influence your emotions, thoughts, actions, and overall success at work. 60 minutes.
Managing Menopause at work
A workshop raising awareness of women experiencing perimenopause and menopause, with a manager-focused add-on. Specifically, helps retain experienced women through a stage that’s still under-supported in most workplaces. Notably one of our most-booked sessions for World Menopause Day (18 October) and as part of broader women’s wellbeing programmes. 60–90 min.
Women’s Mental Health in the workplace
How the gendered experience of work affects mental health — the invisible load, perinatal and hormonal influences, the workplace conditions that disproportionately impact women’s wellbeing. Generally booked around International Women’s Day, women’s network launches, or as part of a broader women’s wellbeing programme. 60 min.
Women’s Nutrition workshop
How nutrition specifically supports women’s health, energy, and hormonal wellbeing across life stages. Specifically covers perimenstrual energy, perinatal nutrition, perimenopausal shifts, and the food and lifestyle changes that genuinely help. Often booked alongside International Women’s Day or as part of a women’s network programme. 60 min.
Beyond a one-day campaign
The organisations doing the best work on women’s wellbeing don’t treat International Women’s Day as the campaign. They treat it as the launch. What follows the day matters as much as the day itself:
- Menopause action plans (which from 2027 will be mandatory for employers with 250+ staff under the Employment Rights Act 2025)
- Manager training on supporting women through life stages
- Women’s network sessions throughout the year, return-to work programmes that actually address what’s hard about returning.
IWD can be the moment that signals all of this is coming. If you’re starting from scratch, IWD is a useful focal point. If you’re already underway, IWD is a useful checkpoint. Either way, the question isn’t “what should we do on 8 March,” it’s “what is 8 March in service of?”
Supporting Women’s Wellbeing at Work
At Stretching the City, we work with organisations to deliver workshops, keynote talks and panel discussions that explore women’s wellbeing, leadership and sustainable performance.
Our sessions are designed to create thoughtful and inclusive conversations while sharing practical insights that support women at every stage of their careers. These sessions are often delivered for International Women’s Day events, women’s networks, leadership programmes and wider wellbeing initiatives.
If your organisation is planning an International Women’s Day event or exploring ways to support women’s wellbeing at work, you can learn more about our sessions here.
Trusted by organisations across all sectors:
Frequently asked questions about IWD events at work
When should we start planning our IWD event?
Most corporate IWD events are booked between October and February, with January as the busiest
month. Speaker diaries fill 3–4 months out — earlier enquiries get first pick of dates and more time for
content tailoring. For 2027 events, start scoping in October 202
Should we host a women-only event or invite everyone?
Both formats have value, but they do different jobs. Women-only sessions are best for honest
conversation about lived experience — they create space for candour that mixed audiences don’t.
Mixed leadership events are best for structural change — they put the decision-makers in the room with the content. Many organisations programme both: a women’s network session in the morning, an
all-hands keynote in the afternoon.
What’s the best IWD theme for our event?
There’s no universally best theme — the right one depends on what your organisation is actually
working on. If retention of senior women is the issue, menopause and mid-career attrition is the
theme. If you’re rebuilding leadership pipelines, invisible work and promotion is the theme. If you have a high return-from-maternity drop-off, motherhood and momentum is the theme. The best IWD
events pick a theme aligned with something the organisation is genuinely trying to solve.
What does an IWD keynote typically cost?
Corporate IWD keynote fees in the UK typically range from £3,500 to £7,500 for a 30–60 minute talk by
an established speaker, with premium speakers (well-known names, broadcast profile) commanding
£10,000+. Charity and cause-aligned rates are sometimes available. Travel and accommodation are quoted separately.
Can an IWD keynote be delivered virtually?
Yes. Virtual delivery works well for global teams and is often more inclusive of regional offices. The
content adapts — Q&A and chat moderation can be built in. For all-hands moments, in-person tends to
land more strongly; for distributed organisations, virtual is often the practical choice
How do we measure whether the IWD event worked?
Pulse the audience for substance, not just satisfaction. Questions like “did the talk give you new
language or framing?” or “will this change how you think about your team?” are more useful than “did
you enjoy it?”. For series and programmes, run a 90-day follow-up survey to see whether changes have
actually stuck.
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