How the United State of Women Summit is closing in on the gender pay gap

We're moving in the right direction, people

You may have noticed how #StateOfWomen has been flooding Twitter's feed, with celebratory updates surrounding the first ever United State of Women Summit literally filling up social media. But just what does it mean for you?

Kicking off in the White House this week, the revolutionary conference aims to 'rally all of us together to celebrate what we’ve achieved, and how we’re going to take action moving forward. Covering key gender equality issues, we’ll make a powerful difference in our collective future', reads a statement on the summit's website.

The event has already garnered $50 million worth of commitments to improve the lives of women around the world, as well as launching groundbreaking initiatives to really target gender gaps in society.

The key outcome was the creation of the ‘White House Equal Pay Pledge’, which has already signed up 28 companies, including several from the fashion and beauty industry such as Gap Inc., L’Oréal, Johnson & Johnson, and Amazon. They, and other complying companies, promise to conduct an annual gender pay analysis and will reassess their hiring and promoting processes to finally make equality the norm.

Continuing today, a huge number of high-profile speakers - including President Obama, The First Lady, Vice President Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, Kerry Washington and Amy Poehler – took to the stage to shine a light on a wide-range of issues affecting women’s lives, from the wage gap

men out earn women by 18.2 per cent on average, ranking as the 13th highest pay gap in the world. Admittedly, we’ve got a long way still to go. But - alongside celebrities from Robin Wright to Ryan Reynolds who have publicly taken aim at this prehistoric attitude - this revolutionary event marks a hopeful turning point for women’s rights.

See some of the top trending #StateOfWomen tweets below:

http://storify.com/carolineleaper/some-of-the-top-trending-stateofwomen-tweets