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Backbeat

Time for women

International Women’s Day is on 8 March. Campaigners Lili Fournier and Dr Barbara LeSavoy explain why it is an important date for everyone’s calendar.

This 8 March marks the 101st anniversary of International Women’s Day. Its theme is ‘connecting girls, inspiring futures’. The day is a global web of diverse local activities connecting women celebrating women’s progress round the world.

IWD was launched in 1911 in Denmark by German socialist Clara Zetkin, and observed in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. In the US, IWD is often linked with the 1912 Bread and Roses strike, where working women in Lawrence, Massachusetts, marched for fair wages (bread) and more dignified working conditions (roses).

Today, IWD is an official holiday in some 30 countries including China, Russia, Rwanda, and Vietnam, with thousands of events taking place around the world.

In 2000 the World March of Women marched in 159 countries on International Women’s Day with an urgent call for justice, equality and an end to violence against women. It barely made the news. In response, Women’s Day Live was set up to put this day on the map (www.womensdaylive.com).

Our mission is to galvanise women to come together in solidarity all over the world, and use the power of music, with a global benefit concert, to open the heart of humanity to the plight of women and children. The plan is to stage this concert on 8 March 2013. Imagine the excitement! The biggest multimedia digital hook-up of women in history.

This past year saw the launch of UN Women, a milestone for women in which world nations have pledged to advance women’s rights and empowerment. This is the cause of our times. Empowering women with education, technology and economic opportunity is the most potent force for global economic growth. And yet the status quo continues, with very little being done.

We stand poised at a pivotal moment. The rise of women’s leadership is key to many of the issues facing humanity, including poverty and spreading democracy around the world. The women in Egypt and in Italy have demonstrated enormous courage and leadership, with a million Italian women turning out in a call for equality.

Now is your time to speak out, support a cause, collaborate, and participate in igniting a global movement for change. Be bold, take a stand for the potential of women worldwide, just like our brave sisters did a hundred years ago in challenging the status quo. Together we can force the world to see women and their worth in a daring new light as we herald a new era for women as equals and world-change agents, which would be an evolutionary leap for humankind itself.

International Women’s Day in schools

As we went to press the NUT was holding a reception to mark International Women’s Day on Thursday 8 March at NUT HQ. The theme was ‘How to celebrate and use International Women’s Day in your school’.

Vanessa Ogden, Head Teacher of Mulberry School for Girls in London, was speaking at the event.