At the International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in 1910, International Women’s Day was established. Initially the aims were to promote the rights of women and to achieve universal women’s suffrage. Battles were won and today has become a day for celebrating the progress made by women’s groups across the globe and for focusing attention on specific issues.
The United Nations have celebrated International Women’s Day on this date since 1975, promoting a particular theme each year since 1996.
Founded in 2001, a global website – internationalwomensday.com – was formed to share International Women’s Day information, events, news and resources. A not-for-profit venture ‘dedicated to keeping International Women’s Day (IWD) alive and growing….. since 2007, IWD has gained considerable momentum due to greater media attention, events, social networking and corporate support.’ The day is celebrated via wide scale activity in almost every country and many world leaders support the day with official statements.
The UN theme for this year’s International Women’s Day 2014 is “Equality for Women is Progress for All“. The Google Doodle yesterday featured an International Women’s day doodle video, showing images and videos of women around the world, with music by Zap Mama.
The Independent featured a special edition – International Women’s Day 2014: The shocking statistics that show why it is still so important – with headlines such as ‘1% of the titled land in the world is owned by woman’ and ‘21% of the world’s managers are female’. There are feminist quotes on their website to inspire you on the International Women’s Day too! Enjoy!
