James Brown sang, ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World – that might have been the case during his time, but today, to quote the Spice Girls, it’s about ‘Girl Power!’.
While International Women’s Day (IWD) is not an official holiday around the world, woman of the 21stcentury are in power, influential and independent.
Taking a look at the world’s most influential people, may it be Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde or Melinda Gates, these are just a few of the women in charge who have made great impact, economically, politically and socially.
As a tribute to all the women in the world, MYKU came up with this amazing list of facts everybody should know when it comes to International Women’s Day:
10. Stand up for her rights!
Women’s day was declared for the first time in New York on February 28, 1909 by the Socialist Party of America in a demonstration for women’s equality in rights and pay.
In 1917, Soviet Russia granted women the right to vote and March 8 became the national holiday to celebrate women (China did so in 1922). In 1975, finally, the United Nations adopted IWD as a holiday.
9. Education for everyone!
In 2018, it is estimated that 66 million girls and women do not have access to a school-education according to the United Girls Education Initiative. Educated women will be more likely to send their children to school and moreover, an extra year of education can help a girl to earn 15-25% more as an adult.
8. Respect her work!
Originally, IWD was called International Working Women’s day in order to acknowledge not only the working women, but even more the hard work women had to put in fighting for their social and political rights. Women make on average 20% less than men for the same work across industries and won’t reach equity until 2059 in the current economic situation.
7. Take her break!
IWD is an official holiday in more than 25 countries around the world. In some countries, such as China and Nepal, women enjoy a day off on IWD while men have to work.
6. #BalanceForBetter
Every year, the UN sets a theme for women’s year. In 2018 it was ‘Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives'. The mission is to draw attention to a current cause to support and improve the lives of women. This year is about a more balanced gender world.
5. A Day without a woman
To set a mark to the truly important significance of IWD, US protesters organized a strike held on March 8, 2017, to protest against the policies of the Trump Administration. They are asked not to take up any paid or unpaid work to demonstrate how much a contribution women make to the world and what happens if women go on strike.
4. Women are smarter than men!
Even though not directly related to IWD, we had to include this one. The two highest IQ scores ever recorded in history belong to women. In fact, Dr. Grace Hopper, a computer scientist invented the first user-friendly computer software in the 1950s. Ironically, she was the first woman who won the Computer Science Man of the Year Award in 1969.
3. Wonder Women
Wonder Woman was the first superhero film with a female character as the lead. Besides a great performance by the amazing Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman was the highest grossing film directed by a woman.
However, of all the top grossing films in 2017, women just represented 8% of directors and 10% of writers, despite the fact that women make up 52% of all movie goers!
2. Voice out!
Women speak about 20,000 words a day on average, men only 7,000 words. Given the significant difference and the fact that women are generally with a stronger sense of empathy, science shows that when it comes to presentation and public speaking women are more powerful.
1. She for president!
In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world’s first female elected head of state. Today, there are 20 female world leaders in power across 17 countries as head of government, head of state, or both. More than just political power, in 2018, there are 14 self-made female billionaires out of which 7 of them reside in China.
Even though it is called International Women’s day, we are still far from INTERNATIONAL. Every year, hundreds of protests take place around the world, not only to celebrate women, but many of them to march for women’s rights. Equality is still not a given and those brave women and men who stand up for women’s rights need deserve all our support. Happy Women’s Day!