International Women’s Day 2016: Salute to Womanhood

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated every year on March 8 to salute women’s achievements throughout history and across the world. It is also known as the United Nations (UN) Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

International Women’s Day is not about affirming the authority of one gender over the other. The UN instituted International Women’s Day to honor the achievements and contributions of women in every sphere of life – be it political or global or domestic. The day is celebrated to salute the spirit of womanhood. The celebration varies across different regions. But generally it is a way to give respect to women and appreciate them for their achievements.

Women’s Day every year has a theme. The 2016 theme for International Women’s Day is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”. The United Nations observance of International Women’s Day on 8 March will focus on “how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals.” It will also reflect on new commitments under UN Women’s Step It Up initiative, and other existing commitments on gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights.

What is Step It Up initiative?

The UN describe Step It Up initiative as:  We envisage a world where all women and girls have equal opportunities and rights by 2030. Step It Up asks governments to make national commitments that will close the gender equality gap – from laws and policies to national action plans and adequate investment. NOW is the time to Step It Up!

Key targets of the 2030 Agenda stated by UN

• By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes.
• By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education.
• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
• Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
• Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

Why is International Women’s Day celebrated?

In the year 1910, a meeting of the Socialist Second International was held at Copenhagen. It was then, with the support of American socialists and German Socialist Luise Zietz, decided to celebrate International Women’s Day every year. Though no date was finalized in the meeting, it was decided to promote equal rights for women.

The International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time on 19th March1911 by thousands of people in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria. An array of programmes like demonstrations, women parade was held. The demand to abolish sex discrimination was brought to front. In America and Russia, the day was celebrated as a National Women’s Day on the last Sunday of the February annually.

In the year 1914 International Women’s Day was held on 8^th March. Since then it is celebrated every year on this day. The women in Germany asked for the voting rights. In 1917 women of Saint Petersburg demanded the “Bread and Peace”, end of the World War I as well as Russian food shortage. Increasingly, the day came to be celebrated in many communist and socialist countries.

Are you proud to be a woman?

Being a woman has characteristic advantages. You are not only important to yourself, but are a part of that gender which has numerous unique gifts:

1. Women are more compassionate considerate and kind.

2. Women are emotionally stronger than men.

3. Women are Multifaceted – They can climb to the pinnacle in their professional arena and at the same time are the best judges at the home.

4. Women are pillars of strength to people around them.

5. Women are naturally more beautiful than men.

6. Women are sensitive and are hurt easily. But they have the enormous power to emerge just like a Phoenix does.

7. Women have the unique blessing of giving life to another being.

8. Women are more efficient and have the capability of playing different roles.

20 Inspirational quotes for International Women’s Day

1. “Women have always been the strong ones of the world. The men are always seeking from women a little pillow to put their heads down on. They are always longing for the mother who held them as infants.” – Coco Chanel
2. “Women are clear-headed, they are more creative and for this reason, sometimes, also more fragile.” – Emma Bonino
3. “Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.”- Hillary Clinton
4. “Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.” – Michelle Obama
5. “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
6. “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” – Indira Gandhi
7. “When it comes to human dignity, we cannot make compromises.” – Angela Merkel
8. “Women are the real architects of society” – Harriet Beacher Stowe
9. “Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. “By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacation-less class.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
11. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” – Simone de Beauvoir.
12. “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher
13. “Honor your daughters. They are honorable.” – Malala Yousafzai
14. “The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that… women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves.” – Louise Otto
15. “The fastest way to change society is to mobilise the women of the world.” – Charles Malik
16. “A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.” – Melinda Gates
17. “A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.” – Rudyard Kipling
18. “Extremists have shown what frightens them most: a girl with a book.” — Malala Yousafzai
19. “The strength of a woman is not measured by the impact that all her hardships in life have had on her; but the strength of a woman is measured by the extent of her refusal to allow those hardships to dictate her and who she becomes.” ― JoyBell C
20. “A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.”- Diane Mariechild

 Be proud to be a woman!