Hi Everyone,
As promised at our Women with Altitude luncheon last week, I am posting the link to this thought provoking presentation from journalist Gayle Lemmon. We simply didn’t have time to play the video at our event, hope you will have 13 minutes to spare today and I trust you will enjoy, Would love to hear your comments.
Pass it on to your friends and colleagues!
Ted Talks – Women Examples not Exceptions
Andrea
On Thursday we held our lunch in honour of International Womens Day. The main goal was to celebrate who we are as women, with the duality of how far we have come and how far we have still yet to go pushed to thebackof our minds, we just had a fun and friendly afternoon, themes close to my heart. We were helped along by the generosity of our two guest speakers, Carole Maher and Kerry Chikarovski. Both of them gave their time and I really am honoured by their generosity. Carole began and shared some stories of her journey from advertising to a lavender farm to becoming a milliner. We love that her hats are being worn on fashions on the field and the spring racing carnival, and we laughed with her in wonderment as Carole’s hats were featured in the Australian ‘ Aussie Lamb Advertisements’ Not to mention over lunch when asked about the royal wedding, Carole casually replied that she had 5 hats on heads amongst the invited guests. Thank you Carole.
Kerry ‘Chika’ was next and what a joy to hear her story and where she had come from. Wonderfully down to earth Kerry shared her story of how she became a member of parliament and how she won the preselection and eventually a ministry portfolio. There were two points from her story that we took with us. Kerry said that if we are ever offered an opportunity that feels like it might be too big or over our head, we should grab it with both hands…. Its scary but with self belief and hard work we can achieve anything. Th flip side of this message was that your career wont hold your hand when your sick, or share a red wine and a laugh with you, or give you a hug when you need a cry or a shoulder. Practising a good work life balance and nurturing our relationships are so important.
The main highlight of the day was all of the lovely, gracious, chatty and giving women that attended. I was so impressed with the energy in the room and I hope that everyone had a wonderful day. Here is the link of the little video that Liz from Reel to Reel made for us.:
I spoke about some links, which I will put up soon to some interesting topics and pieces that I discovered in my recent research.
I have been working today on our upcoming event for Women with Altitude, A celebratory lunch for International Womens Day. As I researched this particular day I was surprised to learn that IWD has been observed since 1911. Pardon my ignorance…. Here are some historic recollections from IWD.
1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman’s Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.
1910
In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named a 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 – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands. 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 thus International Women’s Day was the result.
1911
Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women’s Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. However less than a week later on 25 March, the tragic ‘Triangle Fire’ in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women’s Day events. 1911 also saw women’s ‘Bread & Roses’ campaign.
1913-1914
On the eve of World War I campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. In 1913 following discussions, International Women’s Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Women’s Day ever since. In 1914 further women across Europe held rallies to campaign against the war and to express women’s solidarity.
918 – 1999
Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women’s Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For decades, IWD has grown from strength to strength annually. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women’s rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as International Women’s Year’ by the United Nations. Women’s organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women’s advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women’s equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life
1918 – 1999
Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women’s Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For decades, IWD has grown from strength to strength annually. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women’s rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as International Women’s Year’ by the United Nations. Women’s organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women’s advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women’s equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.
2000 and beyond
IWD is now an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.
The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that ‘all the battles have been won for women’ while many feminists from the 1970′s know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.
However, great improvements have been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices. And so the tone and nature of IWD has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives.
Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. A global web of rich and diverse local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women’s craft markets, theatre performances, fashion parades and more.
Its a long post…. interesting though. Women with Altitude will celebrate and connect on 8th of March. It will be an invigorating day and I hope you will join us. Invitations will go out in the next couple of days.
Until then be gentle with yourself
Andrea x
