'I always feel this sense of frustration from seeing all these lovely supportive messages from companies but the needle doesn't seem to be shifting that much on gender equality more generally, but specifically, we can see in the gender pay gap data, it's still a massive problem,' Ms Lawson said.

Meanwhile, cities with the highest percentage of home ownership were concentrated in the Sun Belt, with four of the top 15 cities located in Arizona and three in Florida. Buckeye, Arizona ranked number one, with a home ownership rate of 92.39 percent.

'With home-selling sentiment now lower than it was pre-pandemic - and homebuying sentiment remaining near its all-time low - consumers on both sides of the transaction appear to be feeling cautious about the housing market,' said Duncan in a statement.

For those who did not brave the fiercely cold waters, many women took to social media to call out gender pay gaps and point out the hypocrisy of many companies appearing to celebrate International Women's Day.

'At today's rate, buyers need to put more than 20 percent down if they don't want to be cost-burdened.'  'Higher mortgage rates have a direct impact on borrowing costs, hurting affordability,' said Nadia Evangelou, elementary school math tutor senior economist at the National Realtors Association.

Domestic violence charity Refuge's latest available data shows a gender pay gap of 23.9 percent in favour of men - which was described as 'unbelievable' by women, given the charity helps women and children escape violence.

Y'all were well aware but y'all don't owe me any loyalty so it's whatever.'  'Y'all very much knew he was in a relationship with a baby and y'all decided to f**k him anyway. I saw all the texts and DM's.

After peaking at an all-time high of 69.4 percent in 2004, national home ownership rates trended downward for more than a decade before hitting 63.1 percent in 2016, the lowest level in records dating back to 2016.

For states, those with less urbanization tend to have higher ownership rates  When it comes to statewide rates of home ownership, the trend shifts, and states with lower urbanization rates tend to have higher home ownership rates, regardless of region.

Ms Lawson said the work of the Gender Pay Gap Bot will continue for years to come, never with the goal to stop any companies from tweeting, Ms Lawson said, but to encourage them to provide 'a bit more of a considered response'.

Investment firm Scottish Widows also sparked outrage after using International Women's Day to promote its services to close the 'pension gap' - while paying its female employees 14 percent less than its male employees.

One of the worst discrepancies Ms Lawson recalled was from Ryanair, where last year the Gender Pay Gap Bot tweeted its 2020/2021 gender pay gap data - that 'women's median hourly pay is 68.6 percent lower than men's' - when the company had tweeted a message of support for its female staff.

The bot highlighted figures from government departments and organisations such as the DCMS, which has a median pay gap of almost 10 percent, and the Department of Transport, which has a gap of almost 13 percent - more than seven percent higher than in the previous year.

Their system pulls from published government data - accessible to all - to shine a light on the pay gap and make sure people 'think a bit more critically' and do not 'take these sorts of messages of empowerment and inspiration at face value'.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh hundreds of swimmers took to the North Sea at Portobello Beach to make a statement on International Women's Day despite the tough weather conditions faced by millions around the UK.

Some of the companies the bot has already called out in 2023 for their most recently available pay gap data include St Mary's University, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and airline Emirates.

Francesca Lawson, 28, set up the bot in 2021 with Ali Fensome, also 28, after being inspired by other automated Twitter accounts and wanting to force 'a bit more accountability' around International Women's Day.

The Gender Pay Gap Bot uses statistics from the designated service on the official gov.uk website, through which UK companies with more than 250 employees are required to publish their payroll data, and takes a comparison of men's and women's average pay across the organisation.

The account is also providing a request feature in 2023, which lets users tweet at them asking for the data from a specific company - as opposed to just the organisations who are tweeting International Women's Day messages.

As well as celebrating their own achievements, those taking the sunrise dip teamed up with the Outdoor Swimming Society to encourage groups to take part in wild swimming events across the UK to raise money for women who need it.