• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, March 8, 2017

#BeBoldForChange is the theme of today’s International Women’s Day and a little bronze girl who has been staring down the Wall Street bull since early Tuesday morning is not only all-too emblematic of the ongoing battle for equality but also, Heather Schwedel writes for Slate, “(groan) part of an ad campaign from investment management company State Street Global Investors and the advertising firm McCann.”

“The statue depicts the kid in a dress and sneakers, standing firmly with her hands on her hips, looking up with a proud and strong expression,” Gabrielle Fonrouge reports for the New York Post. “A spokesman for the company said, ‘She stands as a reminder… that having more women in leadership positions can lead to increased performance and a stronger economy.’”

Is she set up for failure?

“More women on corporate boards is a worthy goal, but does a bronze little girl sculpture need to be in harm's way to achieve it? The girl is supposed to be defiantly starring the bull down, but one doesn’t have to be a professional matador to see that in a contest between a giant bull and a tiny human, the bull is the one to bet on,” Schwedel writes.

“But the campaign ploy is also backed up by an actual threat from the big money manager, which has nearly $2.5 trillion in investments under management: If directors aren't making tangible progress toward adding women to their board, they'll vote their shares against them,” points out Jena McGregor in the Washington Post.

“State Street is vowing that it will now vote its shares in the 3,500 public companies in which it invests … against nominating committee members, or the directors who select the members of boards, if the company has no female directors or cannot show tangible progress toward trying to improve their diversity,” McGregor continues.

The sculpture by Kristen Visbal, which has a permit to remain for a week, is certainly garnering worldwide attention.

“The campaign has come off the back of a recent study from MSCI, which shows that ‘companies in the MSCI World Index with strong female leadership generated a return on Equity of 10.1% per year versus 7.4% for those without (as of September 9, 2015, measured on an equal-weighted basis,’” writes Holly Royce for Metro.co.uk.

“The findings have confirmed previous research that companies lacking board diversity suffer more governance related controversies than average, though there is no conclusive evidence that ‘having more women in board positions indicates greater risk aversion.’”

“If someone could convince us that the absence of diversity or gender diversity is not a problem, we’re leaving that open. Will they? I doubt it,” State Street CEO Ronald O’Hanley tells the Wall Street Journal’s Joann S. Lublin and Sarah Krouse, who got an advance on the story and broke it yesterday.

International Women’s Day celebrates “the political, social, economic and cultural achievements of women throughout history,” writes Ryan Kilpatrick for Time, “with thousands of conferences, gatherings, rallies, exhibitions, festivals and more.” 

MediaPost Agency Daily’s Larissa Few lists advertising agencies supporting the day with events and campaigns here and here.

“Before this year, one could argue that few Americans knew this ‘holiday’ existed,” writes Valentina Zarya in a brief history of its evolution for Fortune, even though its roots date back to a march of 15,000 women in New York City in 1908. This year, she writes, there is “a renewed focus on IWD's roots” and an aim “to bring attention to the lower wages, sexual harassment, discrimination, and job insecurity that women still face.”

Commerce has its place. In USA Today, Andrea Mandell compiles a “bossy, persistent, disruptive shopping guide” of “goods created by or benefitting women.” As she reminds us, “those involved are being asked to take the day off, wear red and avoid shopping in stores and online — except for local small businesses and women-owned companies.” 

Far from Broadway, in Phangane village in the Maharashtra state in India, it’s the one-year anniversary of a school started for grandmothers, who are nearly a third less likely than men to be able to read and write in that country, according to a BBC report featuring photographs by Satyaki Ghosh and interviews by Aditi Mallya and Satyaki Ghosh.

“It is said that women have to be respected on Women's Day, so we thought that our grandmothers, who until now have not received respect, shall finally get the respect they deserve,” says founder Ypgendra Bangar, 41. One of his 30 pupils, Ansuya Deshmukh, was married off at the age of 10. Now 90, she “she has learned enough to sign her name, say the alphabet and count to 21.”

“If a woman is educated, the entire house becomes educated as she brings knowledge and light to the house,” says Bangar.