Join the City in celebrating the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day on:
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 4:30 pm
(reading of Proclamation; presentations and panel discussion to follow)
City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue,
Third Floor Council Chamber, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1V4
International Women’s Day is commemorated annually on March 8 by the United Nations. It's a day observed around the world, when all people come together to recognize and celebrate the achievements of women’s long struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. It's an occasion for women and girls to unite and identify the collective goals that will become the benchmarks for our advancement in the future.
In 1910, 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. 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 International Women's Day was the result.
This year, 2011, is the 100th Anniversary of the first celebration of International Women’s Day.
Find out more about International Women’s Day:
- Women's Advisory Committee to Council
- The City’s Gender Equality Strategy (pdf)
- The origins of international Women’s Day
- The Vancouver Parks Board local Remarkable Women
- International Women’s Day website
- UN timeline and overview of IWD
- Status of Women Canada
- Vancouver Status of Women
- Canadian Women Voters Congress
