This article by C40 originally ran in Thomson Reuters Foundation News

Today, on International Women’s Day, we should celebrate the fact that women are concretely breaking through the glass ceiling at more and more local elections, and women mayors are increasingly common.

In 2014, only four cities across the C40 network had women mayors – today 15 mayors are women, a 275 percent increase. Governing the most important cities of our planet is no longer forbidden territory for us women.

Yet 2017 has also reminded us that maintaining the values which make our cities such wonderful places to live requires constant vigilance.

Last January, hundreds of thousands of people participated in the Women’s March events in the United States and around the world. They marched to protect women’s rights. Unprecedented scenes on the streets of the world’s most important cities including Washington, Paris, Sydney, Mexico City and London showed that women, notably including very large numbers of young women, stand to defend these values against the forces that would try to undermine them.