International Women's Day: Here’s to real life super women

International Women’s Day is a day when we celebrate the wonderful women in our lives. It’s a day to recognise and mark their brilliance. It’s also a chance to reflect on the challenges women all over the world still face and how we might tackle them.

Let’s travel back in time. It’s the 1900s, a time of great global turbulence – of expansion, industry and empire. Women, long denied the right to vote, are upping the ante in the fight for equality and universal suffrage. 1908 sees 15,000 women take to the streets of New York demanding a change to working conditions and the right to vote and by 1909 the Socialist Party of America declares the 28th February National Women’s Day.

But a national day wasn’t nearly enough. The following year an International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin proposed the idea a day of global recognition for women and their struggle. The conference of over one hundred women from 17 countries unanimously agreed and so International Women’s Day was born.

It’s gone on to inspire successful women’s strikes, be celebrated by the UN and now it raises millions for women’s charities.

International Women’s Day is a global celebration. In many countries it’s an official holiday. Some places choose to celebrate it in a similar way to Mother’s Day or Father’s Day – giving gifts, sending flowers and celebrating the women in their lives – others see it as an opportunity to campaign and encourage activism. Many businesses also take the chance to get involved, running their own initiatives to improve equality and celebrate women, us included.