International Women’s Day. We’d be lying if we said we were enthused by having to acknowledge this day. Yes, we are women. Yes, we are female business owners. You’d think we’d be at the forefront of celebrations; I am woman, hear me roar! International Women’s Day did start some interesting conversations, mostly centered on why we were so unenthused by it. In the end, we came to a pretty straightforward conclusion: International Women’s Day was irrelevant to us, because being women has been irrelevant to our business.

Beyond the stereotypical qualities assigned to women, mainly that we’re great multitaskers, that being mothers makes us more efficient, that we’re more intuitive, etc, navigating this world as women since we started our business 13 years ago has not helped nor hindered us when it comes to our success. We have been successful for the same reasons anybody else can be successful: smarts, hard work, grit and a bit of luck. And maybe that’s reason enough to celebrate. Maybe looking back and feeling like our gender hasn’t worked against us is a clear sign that things HAVE changed.

We’ve had wonderful mentors and allies, both male and female but have also dealt with challenging people that came in all genders. People and genders are not one-dimensional, and we’ve never worked with anyone under the assumption that they needed to treat us a certain way because we, or they, are women.

So, how did we get to this point where gender was such a non-issue for us? Certainly thousands of working women before us normalized our presence in the workforce, but another great equalizer came in tech form with the advent of the internet. The “democratization of the rolodex”, as we like to think of it, single handedly made it possible for us to reach out and discover new opportunities, research new contacts, hire new people. Even if it was just symbolic, the internet made us feel like a veil was lifted, that information and influence weren’t kept in a corporate silo.

Tech also allowed us to take charge of our schedules and the direction of our lives. It gave us independence and the ability to operate a thriving business, while also allowing us to focus on our quality of life, and of course multitasking while raising kids. It also allowed us to develop a work environment where our employees have the agency and freedom we would have wanted back when we started our careers.

Tech, it turns out, has been great for women. A field that sometimes gets heat for being male dominated, has actually empowered women the world over to take a chance, take charge, and create businesses they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to build. More importantly, technology and interconnectedness have given women and girls a window into the world, into how things can be, should be. Somewhere out in the world, there is a young woman exploring a distant landscape vowing to make it her own.

We acknowledge we were very fortunate to be born in a part of the world and in a time where our gender has been largely irrelevant, and our hope on this International Women’s Day is that in the near future, many others can say the same. Perhaps we can move beyond International Women’s Day all together rather than continuing to promote struggles, stereotypes and triumphs by gender. Until then, we will continue to develop a work environment where all people are celebrated and respected for who they are as human beings, in the hopes of contributing to a kinder and more just corporate culture.