8th MARCH - INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Women hold up half the sky (Chinese proverb)

Every year on March 8, millions of women and men around the world celebrate International Women's Day. This day is an ideal opportunity to reflect on the progress made to advance women's equality, to assess the challenges facing women in contemporary society, to consider future steps to enhance the status of women and, of course, to celebrate the gains made in these areas.

Women on all continents, often divided by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate International Women's Day. Rallies, marches, fairs, receptions, shows, films and debates are held around the world to celebrate the achievements in gender equality.

Some historical facts about this celebration:

•  Women from clothing and textile factories staged a protest against abusive working conditions on 8 March 1857 in New York City.
• The first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.
• Among other relevant historic events, IWD commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (New York, 1911): over 140 women, most of them young immigrants, lost their lives when a  fire took place in this textile factory in the heart of Manhattan because of the lack of safety measures.
•  The colour purple of the garnments made in this factory has become the symbol of women’s fight for freedom.
• The demand for shorter hours and higher wages soon became one with the demand for the right to vote.
• New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote (1893).
• The first country in Europe to introduce women's suffrage was Finland (1907) and the last one Lietchenstein (1984).
• In Spain, this right was first recognised in the 1931 Constitution, issued during the Second Republic. 

                                                       

You can watch the following one-minute video issued by the UN; it will give you a quick overview of the history of women's suffrage.

         Why is this celebration necessary?

• About 800 women die every day in childbirth.
• 39 million -  Number of girls worldwide who are not in school, 54% of the total number of children
• 14m girls — some as young as eight years old — will be married against their will in 2014.
• An estimated 1.2m children are trafficked into slavery each year; 80% are girls.
• Instruments of genocide such as sexual violence and rape are often directed at women and girls.
• Girls are actually less likely to reach adulthood because of gender discrimination. Tens of millions of girls have been aborted, killed, undernourished, or terribly neglected due to their gender
• More than 16.4 million women in the world have HIV/AIDS. In some regions, girls are HIV-positive at a rate 5 times that of boys.

         The following video will confirm the data above:

   Finally, this is The Guardian's proposal of the top 100 women who managed to break the 'glass ceiling', organised in categories according to their jobs or areas of influence.

Read the article and scroll down to have a look at the different categories: