What changes would you like to see?
This coming Saturday, March 8, is International Women's Day, a day that celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women, while focusing world attention on areas that need further action.
This year's theme for the internationalwomensday.com global hub is Inspiring Change and aims encourages advocacy for women's advancement everywhere in every way. It calls for challenging the status quo for women's equality and vigilance inspiring positive change.
The vast array of communication channels, supportive spokespeople, equality research, campaigns and corporate responsibility initiatives means everyone can be an advocate inspiring change for women's advancement.
In 1910 at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, a woman named a Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled 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 - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and International Women's Day was born.
The first International Women's Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations and the media celebrate the day.
Some groups select their own International Women's Day theme, specific to their local context. For example, the European Parliament's 2013 theme was "Women's response to the crisis" and their 2012 theme "Equal pay for work of equal value".
It's not too late to get involved. There are heaps of IWD events, fundraising opportunities and other activities. For more information on Australian IWD events, or to find an activity near you, go to internationalwomensday.com and click on the Australia tab.
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