INTERNATIONA

L WOMEN’S
DAY or IWD
2021 theme “CHOOSE TO
CHALLENGE”
Why International
• Celebrated on March 8 every year,
Women's Day Is Celebrated
International Women's Day is a day
on March 8?
dedicated to honoring the
achievements of women throughout
history and all across the globe, and
is typically a day for women from all
different backgrounds and cultures to
band together to fight for gender
parity and women's rights.
• International Women’s Day has a rich
history dating back 108 years — the first
glimpse of it was in 1909 when the
Socialist Party of America celebrated
15,000 women who protested long work
hours, low pay, and the lack of voting
rights in New York City.

• Originally called National Woman’s Day,

the monumental annual celebration
spread across the world (officially
celebrated in 1911), but it was Russia
who unknowingly set the March 8 trend.
• Although International Women’s Day
became an official holiday in Russia in
1913, women still experienced difficulties
caused by WWI. While men were off at
war, women dealt with food shortages and
a government who wouldn’t listen to them.

• On March 8, 1917 (February 23 in the

former Russian calendar), tens of
thousands of Russian women took to the
streets demanding change. The unified cry
for help paved the way for Russian women
to be granted voting rights soon after.
 (Sometime after 1945, the terminology shifted, and
“Woman’s Day” became “Women’s Day.”) Until the
mid-1970s, International Women’s Day would be
celebrated primarily in socialist countries.

• In 1975, recognized as International Women’s

Year, the United Nations General Assembly began
celebrating March 8 as International Women’s
Day. By 2014, it was celebrated in more than 100
countries, and had been made an official holiday
in more than 25.
A group of French demonstrators marching under the banner o
the Movement for the Liberation of Women (MLF) on
International Women’s day, 1981.
• Over the years, however, many celebrations of
International Women’s Day strayed far from the
holiday’s political roots. In Argentina, for example,
it was largely commercialized, with men buying
flowers and other gifts for the women in their lives.

• In China, despite the country’s long history with

International Women’s Day, recent holiday events
have focused on shopping and beauty events, such
as fashion shows
 Celebrations over the world

• The day is an official holiday in Afghanistan, Angola,

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia,
China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Laos,
Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal,
Russia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Vietnam and Zambia.

• To celebrate the day in Italy, men give yellow mimosas to

women. Communist politician Teresa Matei chose the
mimosa in 1946 as the symbol of IWD in Italy because she
felt that the French symbols of the day, violets and lily-of-
the-valley, were too scarce and expensive to be used
effectively in Italy.
• In some countries, such as Cameroon, Croatia, Romania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Chile, the day is not a
public holiday, but is widely observed nonetheless.

• On this day it is customary for men to give the women in their

lives – friends, mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters,
colleagues, etc. – flowers and small gifts.

• In some countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also

observed as an equivalent of Mother's Day, where children also
give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

Timeline: Women’s Footprint in History (unwomen.org)

 • So many of the social life's aspects have changed for women in the
years. Starting with the right for education and ending with 

WOMEN IN gender equality - all of this didn't happen overnight, and many
women had to sacrifice their personal lives for a greater cause.

HISTORY
Timeline: Women’s Footprint in History (unwomen.org)
• Starting from female Samurais in the early 1800s and ending with
Stephanie Kwolek, who invented Kevlar (yes, a woman invented
that!) this list of women who changed the world will shed some
light .And without some of these pioneers, we wouldn't be this
advanced in such spheres as neuro-surgeries, chemistry, and even
programming.
 1. MARIE CURIE
 Marie Curie, née Maria Sklodowska, was born in
Warsaw on November 7, 1867, the daughter of a
secondary-school teacher. She received a general
education in local schools and some scientific
training from her father.
 The importance of Curie’s work is reflected in the
numerous awards bestowed on her. She received
many honorary science, medicine and law degrees
and honorary memberships of learned societies
throughout the world. Together with her husband,
she was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics
in 1903, for their study into the spontaneous
radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded
the other half of the Prize.
 In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time
in Chemistry, in recognition of her work in
radioactivity.
 Anne Frank (1929-1945)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o8jSbCanv0
 Bertha Von Suttner
1843-1914
• Baroness Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to be awarded the
Peace Prize, wrote one of the nineteenth century's most
influential books, the anti-war novel "Lay Down Your Arms"
(1889). The title was provocative to many, but the anti-
militaristic message caught on. In the 1870s she became a close
friend of Alfred Nobel's, and they corresponded for years on the
subject of peace.
• The Peace Prize Laureate became one of the leaders of the
international peace movement, and in 1891 established the
Austrian Peace Society. At the male-dominated peace congresses
she stood out as a liberal and forceful leader. At the beginning of
the new century she was referred to as the "generalissimo of the
peace movement".
Gertrude Caroline Ederle • First woman to swim (1925) the English
Channel and one of the best-known
1905-2003 American sports personages of the 1920s.
• In 1925 Ederle made an unsuccessful attempt
to swim the English Channel, but the
following year she returned to France to try
again. In the face of widespread doubt that a
woman could accomplish the feat, she set out
from Cape Gris-Nez near Calais, France, on
August 6 and swam the 35 miles (56 km) to
Dover, Kent, England, in 14 hours 31
minutes, beating the men’s world record by 1
hour 59 minutes.
• (1197) Gertrude Ederle swims the English C
hannel 1926 - YouTube