SheFly wishes you a Happy International Women's Day! This day holds a unique emotional weight for all of us around the globe. Maybe to you it means standing in your power, and healing as a survivor. To others it might be questioning their identity or redefining and undefining feminine. Maybe it means remembering where you came from and those who came before us, paving the way for our journeys. Maybe you’re thinking about the sacrifices of women in your own lives or lives far away, and remembering how connected we are in this way, characterizing a collective experience of strength and resilience that knows no bounds. This women’s day let’s celebrate the diversity in this collective and give more attention, learning, and justice to trans women, women of color, Black women, fat women, queer women, immigrant women, disabled women, undocumented women, and indigenous women. One way you can support BIPOC women in the outdoor space is to support another fellow women-powered start-up: Brave Space Media! Brave Space is launching their first crowdfunding campaign for their short documentary Expedition Reclamation on BIWOC redefining “outdoorsy”. 

While SheFly was the first “pee pant” on the market, this is only the first of many to come. This Women's Day, we’re reflecting on our own journey and taking it back to one of our coolest accomplishments we’ve had as an all women start-up: Giving a TEDxTalk on the pant patriarchy -- what we like to call the pantriarchy! (The patriarchy sneaks up on us sometimes, doesn’t it?!) While seemingly obvious given ⅓ of women have had a bathroom accident with traditional pants in the outdoors, the pants we’ve all been wearing our whole lives are catered towards men because that’s who they were originally designed for. Take a look at this TEDxTalk by SheFly Co-founders Georgia Grace Edwards and Charlotte Massey to learn more about the herstory of pants and the reasons they aren’t accessible for everyone, as well as understand why SheFly is so passionate about taking down the pantriarchy (and why you should join us, too!). 

The pant patriarchy runs deep. Here are some historical highlights from the talk:

• Early women wore woolen skirts while mountaineering because they thought it was too  “scandalous” to wear pants. 

• Women could be jailed for wearing pants in public through the 1940s. 

• There were anti-cross dressing laws in America up until the 1970s, when women were first allowed to wear pants and shorts in schools and universities. 

• Women weren’t permitted to wear pants on the Senate floor until 1993.

• Women’s pocket size has been historically much smaller than men’s -- by nearly half! As though we have less to carry?!

• Men have historically done most of the design for women’s apparel, even still today. 

• The “shrink it and pink it” mentality applies to pants, too -- make them smaller and add some “feminine” colors, then jack the price up!

• Even solutions to these age old problems, such as FUDs (Female Urination Devices), are literally rubber representations of phallic genitalia! 

For decades, the design of our clothing has suggested that the problem lies in our anatomies. Aforementioned “solutions” address the symptoms, but not the root cause of the problem. The problem is not our anatomies -- it’s the pants! All days, but especially today, we’re proud and humbled to be leading the pant revolution with an all-women team. We’ve got big things coming and can’t wait for you to join this revolution with us! 

We’re stoked on International Women’s Day this year for the theme #ChooseToChallenge because at SheFly, it’s what we do. Everyday, we #choosetochallenge the white-cis-male-conquering-the-outdoors narrative. We choose to challenge the traditional, wasteful fast fashion apparel industry. We choose to challenge the traditional tales of elitist, all-or-nothing entrepreneurship that leave out a whole lot of people with innovative ideas and an ability to multitask -- raising families and getting an education and starting a business, simultaneously. And we, as women, in our presence and in our power, choose to challenge systems of oppression globally. What do you  #ChooseToChallenge? Share & let us know!