Monday 8 March 2010

International Women’s Day


Did you know that today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day?

Here are some facts about it

1. International Women's Day is now largely aimed at inspiring women across the world and celebrating their achievements, but its roots were in movements campaigning for better pay and voting rights.
2. The first National Women’s Day was marked on 28 February 1909 in the United States after a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.
3. During an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen the following year, Clara Zetkin, leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, suggested the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day. The idea was met with unanimous approval.
4. 1911 - IWD honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19. Over a million people attended rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.
5. On the eve of World War I campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. In 1965, it was declared as a non working day in the USSR.
6. International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March that same year and has remained the global date for the event ever since.
7. In 1975, the United Nations gave official sanction to International Women's Day and began sponsoring it.
8. The United States now designates the whole month of March as 'Women's History Month'.
9. IWD is also an official holiday in 15 countries including China, Ukraine and Vietnam.
10. Over the past few years Google have marked the occasion with a “Google Doodle”, changing their logo on the search engine’s homepage to reflect the occasion.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-10s/2010/03/08/international-women-s-day-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-global-celebration-115875-22088411/

Thought for the day – the more you share, the more you have.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy International Women's Day!

Alot of people don't realise that the majority of people hungry around the world are women... and yet these women produce 60-80% of the food! The answer to hunger, I really believe lies with women. You can also send a message of solidarity to women across the world for International Women’s Day at http://www.wfp.org/women

Sue's Blog said...

Thanks Susanne