International Woman’s Day is celebrated today; on the 8th of March every year with a purple ribbon. It is often celebrated to show appreciation, respect and love for women similar to Valentines or Mothers day however many cultures still celebrate the social and political views towards women.
In 1910 the first idea of an International Womans day was suggested and on March 19th 1911, the date was celebrated for the first time. The date was changed when the Russian women celebrated the day on the last Sunday in February by the Julian calendar. We now use the Georgian calendar which is where March the 8th came from.
The UN theme for this years IWD is “Equality for Women is Progress for All” in which Google have got a small video linked to their homepage.
Is International Woman’s Day even being recognised? Well BBC Radio 1 and 1 Extra are having all female presenters for 39 hours. One presenter did jokingly point out that surely they should get the time off and the male presenters should have to come in. However the radio station is promoting their strong female presenters in awareness of woman’s rights and abilities. This is also being shown by Fearne Cottons’ playlist ‘Girl Power’, available on spotify and youtube.
However the debate has arisen, as it does most years; do we need to have International Woman’s Day anymore? Woman now have the vote, and when it comes to the work place are now treated fairly equally, so should we still have a day to remind us of this? The answer I think we will all agree on is a very strong YES! Women are still being paid on average less than men, and there are still strong male dominated roles in the work place.
Alternatively, to throw a spanner in the works, there are still female dominated roles; nurses, primary school teachers, as well as women still being expected to be the stay at home parent, and if a man does it, it is still deemed strange.
I personally don’t think that men and women should be equal in absolutely everything! Things such as pay and rights however, I do think we should be equal. What are your thoughts, please let us know on our poll.