Facebook celebrates International Women's Day with #SheMeansBusiness campaign

“Women everywhere give their all to build and support a global community that works for everyone. This is especially true when it comes to women who run businesses. We’re proud that 40% of business pages on Facebook are women-owned, a number that has increased 60% from 2015 to 2016. When women do better, communities and economies do better,” says Maxine Williams, global director of Diversity at Facebook.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says the company "is helping shine a light on the women who lead in our communities, our families and our friendships”. Watch her introduction to the initiative below.

The event kicked off with Lizzie Marvelly, founder of Villainesse, who deconstructs the word 'empowerment' and focuses on how to overcome resistance to it. "Empowerment should be both a cause for celebration and it should also be a rallying cry because it's time for us to get real about empowerment."

This was followed by Mia Freedman, the creator of Mamamia.

Other participants include former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as Canadian politician Bardish Chagger and Loreen Gilbert, director of the National Association of Women Business Owners, reports Ariel Bogle at Mashable. Sandberg will wrap up the proceedings later in the day.

Meet some of these and other remarkable women taking part here.

For more, read:

• Facebook Celebrates International Women’s Day on Facebook
  
• Facebook kicks off 24-hour livestream for International Women's Day on Mashable