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Sure, you've probably seen some friends on your feed posting about International Pancake Day, and we don't want to downplay the importance of free pancakes from iHOP, but today we have something else to celebrate: International Women's Day.

This year's theme is gender parity, and all across the country global leaders are pledging to help fight for equality—especially in the workplace. With the 2015 Global Gender Gap Report from The World Economic Forum predicting that we won't close the gender gap until 2133 (aka over 117 years from now), we know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but there are a few things we can do now to kickstart the process.

For one, you can take your own pledge for parity and promise to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, challenge conscious and unconscious bias, call for gender-balanced leadership, value women and men's contributions equally and create inclusive, flexible cultures.

You can also donate to female-focused charities around the world, and check out the IWD website to find all sorts of awesome events in your area.

Most importantly, you can engage your friends, family, teachers and role models in conversations about what gender equality means—and how we can achieve it.

Need ideas for how to start the conversation? Yara Shahidi, Rowan Blanchard and Emma Watson have all joined the discussion on Twitter.

How are you celebrating this International Women's Day? What wonderful women do you look up to? Spill on your role models in the comments below.

by Chelsea Duff | 3/8/2016