International Women’s Day will be marked in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze with a week of awareness events for women featuring local women-owned or women-managed businesses starting Monday, March 6th. The week-long celebration has been coordinated by Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast (PWGC) and will be formally commemorated with a proclamation from the City of Pensacola Mayor’s office.
“Our members come from both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties and we saw International Women’s Day as a great concept to build upon. After reaching out locally, we were amazed at the number of women-owned or women-managed businesses and are excited to spotlight so many,” said Kolleen Chesley, PWGC’s Executive Director. “Everyone, including men who support women in business, is welcome to attend any of the events and we hope they will support the host businesses by spending money with that business while we are there.”
For International Women’s Day 2023 and beyond, PWGC is helping bring awareness to the issues women face in business. “Women have made important gains in representation in the last few years, but we’re still a long way from equality,” said Chesley. A recent study by Lean In and McKinsey Research shows that bias contributes to women being passed over for jobs and promotions, and almost 60% of women regularly experience microaggressions at work. Additionally, for many women, finding meaningful support at work is a major challenge. About 20% of women say they’re often the only woman in the room at work.
Activities tied to International Women’s Day are intended to remind us that we can all help build an equal world. This global day of focus celebrates the collective power of women, pays tribute to women’s achievements, raises awareness of the remaining challenges, and takes action to drive gender parity.
To collectively make a difference, Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast is proud to celebrate International Women’s Day with a week-long celebration spotlighting local women in business, encouraging positive networking relationships, celebrating locally women-owned businesses, and raising money for Powerful Women. Powerful Women’s mission is to promote, advance, and improve women in business.
“The events are free to attend, however, we do ask that you purchase from the business while we are there and that was designed for an impactful reason,” says Chesley. “For instance, if you come to our lunch on Friday at End of the Line Cafe, it’s free to attend, but we ask that you buy your own lunch and pay End of the Line Cafe. That restaurant is woman-owned and by doing this, we are tangibly showing the economic power and important consumer insight that women have in the marketplace. Also, we are able to showcase the power of collaboration and charitable giving as End of the Line Cafe has agreed to give-back a portion of her profits from the purchases from our attendees to PWGC for this campaign. If we can make a small difference for a local small business that’s impactful, it’s amazing to wonder what we could do in the future.”
PWGC has registration links for some of the events and has created an online event page where interested attendees can register for the rest of the events:. The online event will be updated as additional event details are confirmed.
Events from March 6-11th:
Monday, March 6, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Kick-Off Lunch at South Market,
905 E. Gregory Street, Pensacola, FL 32502. Register at: https://KickOffLunch.
Tuesday, March 7, 4:30 – 6:00 p.m., Power Hour at Rich Events,
2 Intendencia Street, Pensacola, FL 32502. Register at: https://PowerHourPowerful.
Wednesday, March 8, 8:30 – 10:00 a.m., Walk & Talk at Running Wild and The Movement
Clinic, 3012 E. Cervantes St., Pensacola, FL 32503. Register at: https://forms.gle/
Thursday, March 9, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Lunch & Learn at Bodacious,
407 Palafox St. Pensacola, FL 32502. Register at: https://forms.gle/
Friday, March 10, Paired Networking with Powerful Women, come anytime between 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., End of the Line Café, 610 E. Wright St., Pensacola, FL 32501. Register at: https://forms.gle/
Saturday, March 11, 11:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m., Prosecco & Powerful Women Shopping Event at Jen’s Designer Deals, 360 Gulf Breeze Pkwy, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561. No registration needed.
Participants are encouraged to register to help event hosts plan. Host businesses will be making a give-back donation to PWGC from the event’s profits.
Additional info: The mission of the Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast (PWGC) is to promote, advance and improve women in business. More information can be found on their Facebook page or their web page at: https://
