On This Day: March 8th

March 8th is International Women's Day.

It's a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

The earliest Women's Day observance, called "National Woman's Day,"5 was held on February 28, 1909 in New York.

In August 1910, during the International Socialist Women's Conference being held in Denmark and inspired in part by the Americans in the previous year, German Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual Women's Day. Delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights including suffrage for women.

The following year, on March 19th, IWD was marked for the first time, by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.

The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day in the International Women's Year – 1975. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8th as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace.

Balance for Better

This year the theme for International Women's Day is Balance for Better – read more on the IWD website here – and its supported charity is the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts – the donation page is here.

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