International Women’s Day 2014: Inspiring Change

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I met recently with a group of women in South Australia who are inspiring change. Pictured with members of Cancer Voices SA.

I met recently with a group of women in South Australia who are inspiring change. Pictured with members of Cancer Voices SA.

Each year International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. Inspiring Change is the 2014 theme, encouraging advocacy for women’s advancement everywhere in every way.

The history of this day goes back to  1910 when an International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin’s suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women’s Day was the result. Success of the first International Women’s Day in 1911 exceeded all expectation. In 1913 International Women’s Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Women’s Day ever since.

So here’s to you, the many. many wonderful women, I know who are disruptors, challenging the status quo – inspiring change. You continue to motivate and inspire me every day.

Long may you continue to do so.

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