International Women's Day

This years theme is Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all

When?: It starts March 8th, but will have a whole host of events relating to the day throughout the month.

International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women. -www.internationalwomensday.com

Pics from IWD around the world (www.internationalwomensday.com):

Women gather in Guinea, Africa

Women gather for IWD conference

in Tolagnaro, Madagascar

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

in Canada call for action on IWD

Women in IWD rally from factories
and groups in Dhaka, Bangladesh

For the history of IWD click here

Search your area for local events that will be taking place on this day, and make sure to represent!!

If you live in London, I have put together a little list of some things that look interesting, and will mostly be held at The Women's Library...

EVENTS/TALKS/EXHIBITIONS/DEBATE

Study Day : Heart of the Race: Black Feminism in Britain
Saturday 6 March, 10am – 5pm
Free

This day provides an overview of the rise of black British feminism in the 1970s. It will draw on the Black Cultural Archives’ recent oral history project, which collected testimonies from the women involved in OWAAD (Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent) and other Black women’s groups. Heart of the Race considers the significance of the movement, and reflects on how grassroots Black and Asian women’s movement became important to an emerging black British feminist consciousness.

Where: London Metropolitan Archives. 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London, EC1R 0HB

Ms Understood

Ends 17 April 2010
Entrance fee: Free

Ms Understood: Women’s Liberation in 1970’s Britain celebrates the 40th anniversary of the country’s first national Women’s Liberation Conference at Ruskin College, Oxford. During this event, over five hundred women came together and lay the foundation for the movement's key demands:

• Equal pay for equal work
• Equal educational and job opportunities
• Free contraception and abortion on demand
• Free 24 hour nurseries under community control

The exhibition explores the prelude, birth, rallies, media, fashion, politics, disagreements and victories of this crucial phase for improving women’s rights.

Teenage Motherhood: Policy problem or feminist cause?

Thursday 29 April, 7pm (90 mins)
Free

As the Government’s ten-year strategy comes to a close, public debate on teenage pregnancy looks set to continue.

This event brings together policy experts, campaigners and feminist scholars to consider: is teenage pregnancy a problem, or is young women’s right to choose motherhood a present-day feminist cause?