I am a huge fan of International Women’s Day.
I love that us females have our very own day on March 8th every year to celebrate women just as they are, their achievements and contributions, and I’m delighted to witness this special day getting bigger and better every year across the world.
For what seemed to me to be a relatively new day in the calendar, it turns out that International Women’s Day is anything but, having originally believed to have started in 1909 in New York as part of the trade union movement, by a woman called Theresa Malkiel, a Russian born, American labour activist, suffragist and educator.
However, International Women’s Day as we know it today essentially took off in 1975 when the United Nations began celebrating the day on March 8th as part of International Women’s Year.
Personally, I have only in the last few years come to recognise the importance of IWD as a day to champion women’s rights and female empowerment.
It is a wonderful thought that all over the globe there are events and celebrations taking place, and every country has their own special traditions to mark it. In several countries such as Russia, China and Italy IWD is now a national holiday, while in Japan International Women’s Day is gradually turning into a full month of celebrations.
In Ireland, we have our own things going on and plenty of them too.
In the week or so leading up to IWD events are taking place all over the country from inspirational panel talks with powerhouse female CEO’s and media personalities to the hosting of coffee mornings. It appears that this year many women across Ireland have taken it on themselves to organise their own IWD events in their offices or at home, while others might mark the day by meeting their friends for dinner and clinking their glasses in celebration.
I marked IWD this year by attending an event held by ‘Women on Air’, a wonderful organisation with the aim of getting more females on radio, television and panels as experts in their own field.
As I listened to former Political Correspondent for RTE, Martina Fitzgerald discuss her own career and thinking back on a talk I attended in Twitter headquarters last week with Dr. Ciara Kelly, the key theme I am taking away with me from IWD this year is resilience.
Listening to these two women talk openly about continuously falling over, then managing to pull themselves together and get back up even when they really didn’t feel like it was inspirational and is something many of us women can relate to.
The overall theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #BalanceForBetter but I’m sticking with my own theme of resilience, and if I fall down that’s okay because I’ll try my best to pull myself back up!
Michelle
