Buildings lit up worldwide with female symbol to honor International Women’s Day

Offices from New York to Bogota celebrated women in the corporate world.

ByLindsey Jacobson
March 8, 2018, 10:58 AM

On Wednesday night, over 30 buildings worldwide lit up in honor of International Women’s Day. As part of the Catalyst Skyline Takeover, offices either projected a red female symbol or illuminated it in their building windows. The goal of Catalyst, the global nonprofit behind the displays, was to showcase a “collective dedication to advancing women in the corporate world,” according to Catalyst’s press release.

PHOTO: On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018.
On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018. As part of the Catalyst Skyline Takeover campaign, dozens of the most iconic and influential city structures across the global skyline—including buildings in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Peru, and Colombia—are projecting or illuminating in their building windows a red female symbol to show a collective dedication to advancing women in the corporate world.

“These companies are driving positive change in their workplaces and literally shining a spotlight on the need for all of us to do more because they recognize that progress for women is progress for everyone,” Deborah Gillis, president and CEO of Catalyst, said in a statement.

PHOTO: On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018.
On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018. As part of the Catalyst Skyline Takeover campaign, dozens of the most iconic and influential city structures across the global skyline—including buildings in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Peru, and Colombia—are projecting or illuminating in their building windows a red female symbol to show a collective dedication to advancing women in the corporate world.

Buildings in New York City’s Time’s Square; Lima, Peru; Toronto, Canada; and Bogota, Columbia; all participated.

PHOTO: On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018.
On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018. As part of the Catalyst Skyline Takeover campaign, dozens of the most iconic and influential city structures across the global skyline—including buildings in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Peru, and Colombia—are projecting or illuminating in their building windows a red female symbol to show a collective dedication to advancing women in the corporate world.
PHOTO: On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018.
On the eve of International Women’s Day, Catalyst is using buildings as beacons to send a powerful message to the world: we need workplaces that work for women, March 7, 2018. As part of the Catalyst Skyline Takeover campaign, dozens of the most iconic and influential city structures across the global skyline—including buildings in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Peru, and Colombia—are projecting or illuminating in their building windows a red female symbol to show a collective dedication to advancing women in the corporate world.

The statement these cities across the world made by showing such outward support for women working in the corporate world isn't misplaced as 56.8 percent of all women in the U.S. participated in the labor force in 2016, according to the Department of Labor. In 2015, there were 17 million people working in management in the United States but only 39.2 percent of that number were women. Also, in 2015, women still earned 17 cents less than a man’s dollar in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center data.

PHOTO: Tourists take photos of 'The Fearless Girl' statue as it stands across from the Wall Street's famous Charging Bull to draw attention to the gender equality and lack of female managers, March 9, 2017, in New York.
Tourists take photos of 'The Fearless Girl' statue as it stands across from the Wall Street's famous Charging Bull to draw attention to the gender equality and lack of female managers, March 9, 2017, in New York.

Catalyst hopes that this event will be as iconic as last year’s "Fearless Girl" statue in front of the Charging Bull in New York City.

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