What is International Women’s Day (IWD)?
IWD is a day to celebrate the achievements of women, past and present, around the world. By celebrating and promoting these achievements, the day also becomes an opportunity to inspire and empower girls and women alike. It is not just for women, however; men are encouraged to take part too.
IWD was observed officially for the first time in 1911 by Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. It’s now an event that is increasing in size and impact each year and is recognised globally.
What’s your experience of IWD?
I celebrated my first ever IWD last year. At the time, I was on an international development placement in a remote, Tanzanian village called Khusumay. I had come to the village with 6 other UK volunteers and 6 Tanzanian volunteers to help implement a water and sanitation project. We immersed ourselves in community life in a number of ways, including becoming involved in the women’s’ groups. On IWD, myself and a number of the other volunteers organised a celebration in the central area of the village and invited all the women, young and elder, to attend. We had a really great turnout and served chai (tea) and cakes to our guests. We then took it in turn to share our experiences of being women – Emily and myself spoke about our experiences as young women in the UK whilst Eva spoke about life as a young woman in a Tanzanian city. We sang, danced and smiled before asking our guests to share their thoughts and comments with us. It was such an incredible day, one that will stay with me for a long time to come. The women of Khusumay are amongst the most resilient, strong and loving people that I have had the pleasure of meeting.
Why celebrate IWD in the UK?
Although it may at first seem as though we have achieved gender equality here in the UK, women in our society still face many challenges. Women are still underrepresented in many jobs and do not always receive the same salary that men do for the same role. I don’t think women are perceived as equals to men so it is important that people throughout the UK, both women and men, continue to celebrate IWD to promote equality.
What is the relevance of IWD to BLOODHOUND SSC and STEM?
Amongst STEM careers, women are greatly underrepresented. For example, only 8% of engineers are women (Improving Diversity in STEM, CaSE, 2014)! There is no reason why women shouldn’t study STEM subjects and have a career in STEM. However, at present there are some barriers that prevent women from accessing these careers. One of those barriers is a lack of inspirational female role models. Although IWD is a celebration for all women, at BLOODHOUND SSC we want to use this event to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM and to showcase female role models.
Within the BLOODHOUND SSC team, there are a number of women making a meaningful contribution to the project. It is their hard work and dedication that is helping to make this project possible. We hope that some of our young, female followers will aspire to take a STEM route similar to those taken by our female team members.
What can I do to celebrate IWD?
There are lots of different events taking place around the UK, and the world. You can search for events here, on the International Women’s Day website.
You can also Tweet and post on other social media sites using #WomensDay. Perhaps you’d like to share personal experiences of being a woman or girl or write about an inspirational woman that you know.
Christina Ravinet (BLOODHOUND Science Communicator Intern)
