International Women's Day Workshops

It's a global observance on March 8 that marks the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and presses for gender equality. It has run in some form since 1911, it carries a different theme each year, and it's marked by everything from state ceremonies to office breakfasts.

The United Nations began observing it in 1975, International Women's Year, which is roughly when it moved from a labor-movement tradition to something most large employers mark in some way. In a number of countries March 8 is a full public holiday.

The date came out of the labor movement, and it took a few years to settle.

In 1908, garment workers marched through New York for shorter hours, better pay and the vote. In 1910, Clara Zetkin proposed an annual international women's day to the socialist women's conference in Copenhagen, and the room agreed unanimously. The first observances, in 1911, drew more than a million people across Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, but they were held on March 19.

March 8 was settled by events in Petrograd. In 1917, Russian women textile workers walked out on strike for bread and peace. The date was February 23 in the Julian calendar Russia still used, which was March 8 everywhere else. The strike spread across the city, and within a week the Tsar had abdicated. Several countries had already moved the observance to March 8 in the years just before; after 1917 it stuck.

Every menu on this page comes from a woman who changed how America cooks:

• Fannie Farmer's Boston Cream Pie, 90 minutes. Farmer ran the Boston Cooking School and published its cookbook in 1896, and she's the reason American recipes say one level teaspoon instead of a pinch. Add a coffee tasting or a champagne pairing.
• Julia Child's French Omelet and Gougeres, 90 minutes. A French omelet is over in well under a minute once you have the wrist action, and the cheese puffs bake while you practice it. Add a wine pairing.
• Julia Child's French Crepes with strawberries, 60 minutes, served with creme anglaise made from scratch to her instructions. Add a coffee tasting or champagne.

All three have gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options.

Because it was baked in a pie tin. In mid-19th-century American kitchens, pie plates were far more common than cake pans, so cakes got baked in whatever people actually owned, and the name outlived the equipment. The dessert itself is a sponge split and filled with pastry cream under a chocolate glaze, and Boston's Parker House Hotel, which opened in 1855, is generally credited with creating it.

Massachusetts made it the official state dessert in 1996. The version your team makes is Fannie Farmer's, out of the 1896 book that taught American home cooks to measure.

Start with the fact that the menu is the message. Your team spends the hour actually executing the work of two women who reshaped American cooking, with the chef explaining where the recipes came from while they cook. That lands differently from a slide about representation.

From there it's yours to shape. Customization is free, so you can hand fifteen minutes to a speaker from your women's employee resource group, have a leader open the session, or run the chef's portion first and leave the floor open afterwards. The Zoom host handles the chat, the games and the timing, so nobody on your side has to run the room.

The general case for a themed event is simple: a date on the calendar gets people to show up, and an hour of doing something together gets them talking. A catered lunch does neither on its own.

Yes. The chef teaches live and unhurriedly, ingredients arrive pre-portioned, and crepes and omelets are exactly the sort of thing that gets easier with someone talking you through it. Julia Child's entire argument was that beginners could do this.

Groups run from 3 to 600 or more, and very large teams are usually split by department or across days. Zoom is the default, and Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and WebEx work too. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, kosher and no-alcohol versions cost nothing extra when you tell us in advance. Kits ship free within the US, and we deliver to Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Sweden, India, Australia, South Africa and Mexico among others. Anyone who'd rather not take a delivery can work from a shopping list.

Decide early whether you want one session or two, because that's the only real constraint. A single live session has to land somewhere: mid-afternoon in London is mid-morning in New York and close to midnight in Singapore, and somebody is always the one staying up. If your spread is wider than about eight hours, running the workshop twice is the kinder answer.

That's the same mechanic used for very large groups, which get split by department or across days — splitting by region instead is the same conversation with your planner, who can tell you which slots a chef can cover. The menus here run 60 to 90 minutes, so two sittings is an afternoon rather than a project.

And check the calendar before you fix the date. March 8 is a full public holiday in a number of countries, so part of your team may already be off.

Boston Cream Pie is $745 for a group under 5, then $149 per person from 5 to 30, $139 from 31 to 50 and $129 above that. French Omelet and Gougeres is $695, then $139, $129 and $119. Strawberry French Crepes is $645, then $129, $119 and $109. Every rate covers your personal chef, a dedicated event planner, ingredient delivery, gratuities and all service fees.

Timing is the only fiddly part. March 8 is a fixed date with no flexibility in it, and a good share of the teams booking it are ERGs that only got their budget approved in January, so the days around it go quickly. Three weeks is the minimum; earlier is better. Rush dates are sometimes possible depending on chef availability, and running the event in the week either side of the 8th is a perfectly normal choice.

A $250 deposit holds it, paid by credit card, ACH bank transfer or check. Cancel 21 or more days out and you are refunded what you paid less any nonrecoverable costs already committed; 8 to 20 days out you choose between a 50% refund and a 100% Rockoly credit; inside 8 days payments are nonrefundable, though one complimentary reschedule is yours if you ask 14+ days ahead. Every event carries the Love Your Event Guarantee: your team should have an amazing experience, and if your Rockoly event doesn't live up to expectations, we'll make it right. Fill out the form on this page and a planner will get back to you, or call (617) 939-9732 or email events@rockoly.com.