Women’s History Month 2024: How the Herizon ERG Spent March

Our Herizon ERG works year-round to connect the women of Praytell and build a community that prioritizes action and inclusion—within the ERG and the agency as a whole. But Women’s History Month? That’s like our Super Bowl. This March, we wanted to build out four weeks of programming that would be impactful for our members but also relatively easy to fold into their day-to-day. Making women do MORE emotional labor to celebrate would be pretty counterproductive.

The theme for Women’s History Month 2024 was “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.” Here’s how we structured each week of March to guide our members’ reflection and benefit this broader theme. 

Week 1: REFRAME

How we can make easy changes that better advocate for ourselves and others. 

We began the month by grounding ourselves in education, experience, and getting a better understanding of how we see the world. Since 2020, Herizon co-leads have been working on a book list for our members that focuses on everything from feminism to straight-up fun. Reading has been a powerful avenue for our members to connect and chat (even when miles separate them) so we recirculated this Women’s Lib(rary) to get more recommendations and help our members find their next favorite book. 

We also kicked off the month with general goal setting and a Social Media Recon. We encouraged members to take time to think about what they wanted for themselves and other women in their lives this month and to use those insights to bring a critical eye to their social media feed. Who are we following? Are they people we know in real life? People with a diversity of thought and intersectional experiences? Do we feel rejuvenated after scrolling or self-conscious? Are we educating ourselves or needlessly doomscrolling? In this day and age, clicking that ‘unfollow’ button is an act of self-care.

Week 2: REFLECT 

How our life experiences shape our every day.

Girlhood has become the talk of the town (we’re still waiting on a Boyhood sequel—Patricia Arquette, DM us!) and it’s not every day you get to reflect on your early days with coworkers. In honor of International Women’s Day, we kicked off Week 2 by encouraging members to change their Slack profiles to pictures of characters that made them proud to be a girl at a young age. From Nancy Drew and Hannah Montana to a Julia Stiles protagonist and Totally Spies cartoon, members proudly shared some of their early role models. Additionally, Herizon co-leads sent out journaling prompts that inspired individual introspection and lively discussion in our Slack channel. After all, few things feel more nostalgic than a big group chat with your friends. 

Week 3: REST 

How we take care of ourselves to better support others

Between office jobs and housework to unseen labor like the emotional support we provide, women are in need of some dedicated rest time. We began this week with our third annual ‘Mom’s Day Off’ to make sure our working moms were able to enjoy time with family or simply kick back and catch up on some TV. For the duration of this week, Herizoners sourced new ways to relax, unplug, and avoid burnout from our Slack channel. Finally, Herizon members gathered on a video call on Thursday morning to do a session of restorative pilates together (from our home offices). 

Week 4: RESPOND 

How to actively advocate for communities

For the last week of March, we wanted to utilize these moments of reflection and connection to take action. We started a dialogue amongst members about how we interact with difficult news and the constant influx of information (as PR professionals, it’s our job to stay up to date). How do we make a change in the moment? How do we prioritize political and social issues? We encouraged members to write a letter to their political representatives about a cause they care about. They could also write letters to family, friends, or their future selves to bring in any insights they had throughout the month. Lastly, our monthly newsletter became a hub for all things Women’s History Month in hopes that these exercises and experiences stay with our members for months to come. 

We’re happy to look back and admire the inroads we’ve made in the Herizon community and look forward to future outcomes we’re already bringing to fruition. Happy Women’s History Month! We hope you celebrate all year long.

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