Even after International Women’s Day March 8, Madison celebrated women the whole month of March. There have been many events throughout the month to honor and uplift the women at the University of Wisconsin and the greater Madison community.

The theme of the campaign for this year’s women’s month is “Embrace Equity” — a theme the city of Madison embraced in their month-long events.

Here are some events from the month to celebrate this theme of embracing equity.

Multicultural Student Center

The Multicultural Student Center kicked off Women’s History Month with an opening night for the new Women’s Showcase in the Red Gym. They hosted a special event and featured paintings from many female-identifying UW students.

The art gallery features work which represents womanhood and cultural identity through many different forms of art. They also had a booth to write thank-you notes to impactful women in students’ lives.

They also hosted a virtual conference called Higher Education and Civil Society for the Technological Advancement of Girls and Women. The goal was for this event to serve as a call to action for organizers to start thinking about technological advancements for women.

Multicultural Student Center celebrates Women’s History Month with student art gallery

Capitol Celebration

On International Women’s Day, the Wisconsin Coalition for Dignity for Incarcerated Women and Girls went to the capitol to discuss issues with legislators regarding incarcerated women and girls.

They proposed several key changes on this issue — including a ban on the shackling of pregnant incarcerated women, the creation of a Wisconsin Doula Program for pregnant incarcerated women and better visitation policies for primary care physicians.

They invited people to join them at the capitol to fight for these rights in an event called “Sharing HERStory” on March 8.

AFRICaide and 4W Celebration

The weekend before Women’s Day, AFRICaide and 4W hosted an event to honor women from all backgrounds at Christ Presbyterian Church.

The event lasted a large portion of the day and had a global marketplace with all-female vendors. There was also music, a keynote speaker and a panel discussion.

AFRICaide is a nonprofit organization in Madison, and 4W stands for Women and Wellbeing in Wisconsin and the World. Donations from this event go towards supporting initiatives for these groups.

WLCC Celebration

To celebrate women in business, the Wisconsin Latino Chamber of Commerce planned a celebration at their Gateway Building on March 8.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to network with like-minded women and entrepreneurs at all levels, learn about current issues affecting women in business, and discover ways to empower one another,” according to a statement from the event website.

The event included breakfast, zumba, marketplace vendors and awards.

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Hilldale

If you have never checked out the bougie shopping area on University Ave, you should definitely go. And it turns out many of the business owners there are women.

The Hilldale website put together a list of all the women business owners in that area to celebrate their achievements. Businesses like Blended, Gigi’s Cupcakes, Hilldale Barber and Kendra Scott were all included on that list.

Outstanding Women of Color Awards

At the beginning of the month, the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement at UW honored six women in a reception for Outstanding Women of Color.

This is the 15th year of this reception since its founding in 2007, and its purpose is to recognize women of color who have contributed to the community in excellent ways through engagement in social justice, activism and advocacy for marginalized communities.

Women in Tech Livestream

Women from Esker, the president of Madison Women in Tech and the Director of Business Development at Baker Tilly met virtually to discuss the future of gender equality March 8.

They live streamed the event to celebrate achievements of women in the field, discuss continuing discrimination and raise awareness so women are inspired to take action.