Category: Women’s History

Women's History Month 2023. 14-yr. old striker, Fola La Follette, and Rose Livingston. Glass negative from the George Grantham Bain Collection, 1913.

International Women’s Day – 8th March 2024

08/03/2024 / mayagreen / 0 Comments

International Women’s Day – 8^th March 2024

Today is International Women’s Day – 8th March 2024

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on the 8^th of March each year and forms part of Women’s History Month. It has been running for over 100 years with the first International Women’s Day being held in March 1911.

The aim is to celebrate women’s achievements, promote gender equality, diversity and inclusion, and raise awareness about discrimination.

IWD is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It emphasises the progress which has already been made towards gender equality and shows what still has to be done to achieve these goals.

Inspire Inclusion

This year’s theme is Inspire Inclusion. Inspiring others to recognise and respect women’s inclusion can help us to create a better world.

Inspiring inclusion in women builds a community where women feel accepted, valued, and empowered.

What Can You Do?

Everyone can participate in International Women’s Day. This can be as organisations, groups and individuals, at work, at home and within the community.

Anyone can be involved in celebrating International Women’s Day through any activity which supports the progress of women and girls and will have a significant impact within their own environment.

We must celebrate the achievements of all women, fully embracing their age, race, faith, ability, body image, and how they identify. In the global spectrum, women must be welcomed and recognised in all fields, ensuring that their needs, interests, aspirations and creative talents are highly regarded throughout industry, business, education, health, sport and leisure.

For more than 100 years, International Women’s Day has endeavoured to create positive change for women and girls everywhere. Let us all inspire inclusion by celebrating not only the achievements of women in our own lives – from mothers, daughters, sisters, friends and colleagues – to women all around the world.

Strike the pose and inspire inclusion. Let’s work together to support each other, celebrate our achievements and be all we can be!

By Sharon McMichael

Find out more:

Celebrate Women Empowerment

International Women’s Day

Photo Source Library of congress

Women’s History Month 2023

11/03/2023 / mayagreen / 0 Comments

Women’s History Month 2023

It’s Women’s History Month 2023. It is celebrated throughout March to highlight the often overlooked contributions that women have made in history and modern times. It is celebrated in March to coincide with International’s Women Day which is celebrated on the 8^th of March. According to legend, it coincides when a group of women from different factories in New York City went on strike to demand better working conditions and the right to vote (Britannica.com). Another story is that honours women striking in Petrograd which coincide with the beginning of the Russian Revolution (ibid).

Themes

There are different themes each year to the celebration. In the United States, the theme this year is to celebrate women who in storytelling. A theme to highlight the ‘achievements of these powerful women who have used their voice and creativity to inspire, educate, and entertain people across generations all over the world’(International Business Times).

While here in the United Kingdom, the theme is Embrace Equity. Equity being the quality of fairness and impartial and is a must have in today’s world. According to International Women’s Day.com, the reason for the theme is to spark a discussion of ‘why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action (InternationalWomen’sDay.com) In the their words ‘We can all truly embrace equity. It’s not just something we say, It’s not just something we write about, It’s something we need to think about, know, value and embrace. It’s what we believe in, unconditionally. Equity means creating an inclusive world’.

Additional Reading

We hope you have had a chance to celebrate Women’s History this month. Each of our libraries have a display for more information and books for further reading. As well as finding more on our library catalogue

You can read about our previous posts here

Photo Source: Library of Congress

Celebrating International Women’s Day

08/03/2023 / julietkinsey / 1 Comment

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Inspiring women of Scotland

Celebrating International Women’s Day in Scotland, we thought it might be nice to pay homage to some incredible Scottish women both alive and sadly gone. We can only fit in a few here so if you are interested in learning more, why not look up some more information at librarysearch.napier.ac.uk

Christina Miller

Source: Heriot Watt University

One little know Scottish woman whose story deserves to be better remembered is Christina Miller. Despite being born female and hearing impaired in 1899, and later losing her sight in one eye, she battled against the norms of the time to become a respected analytical chemist. In addition, she was an inspirational teacher and mentor to generations of students.

Miller was awarded the Keith Prize by the Royal Society of Edinburgh for her scientific paper on phosphorus trioxide. She became one of the first 5 women to be elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. There is even a building at the University of Edinburgh named after her.

Source: British Library

Mukami McCrum

An all-round amazing person, Mukami McCrum has lived in Scotland most of her life. Mukami fights for women’s rights, in particular BAME and LGBT women who need support from domestic abuse. Furthermore, she is one of the founders of Shakti Women’s Aid and campaigns to end Female Genital Mutilation.

She was the chief executive of Central Scotland Racial Equality Council and has brought her deep commitment to race and gender justice to many organisations, including Akina Mama wa Afrika, World Council of Churches, and Responding to Conflict Trust. She has an MBE for her community and human rights work.

Continue reading

Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day

08/03/2022 / julietkinsey / 0 Comments

“Imagine a gender equal world.

A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.

A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

A world where difference is valued and celebrated.

Together we can forge women’s equality.

Collectively we can all” #BreakTheBias.

(Source: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/)

women doing break the bias pose for International womens day

Source

History of International Women’s Day

It’s International Women’s Day! A global celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women. It took place officially for the first time on March 8, 1911 in Denmark, Austria, Germany and Switzerland (Source). Coinciding with the female suffragette movement at the time.

The United Nations started sponsoring International Women’s day in 1975 and the United Nations General Assembly stated it was…‘To recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security (Source)

March has since become the celebratory month of women’s contributions to history, science, culture and society. It started off as a week celebrated in California and eventually became a celebratory month recognised globally. The 1960s saw an increase in feminism movements which brought more attention to achievements and contributions made by women throughout history.

International womens day image of woman at work

source

Break the Bias

This year’s theme is “Break the Bias”. It is asking us to stand up to the bias we see in the world and to take action! Read more on International Women’s Day at www.internationalwomensday.com/

Here at Edinburgh Napier University, there will be a number of activities taking place to show our support. We have an event on Women Working in Films & TV, this is an opportunity to network and to hear from a panel of experts in this field. The event takes place on Tuesday 8 March 2022, from 5.30pm to 7.30pm in the Glassroom at our Merchiston campus. More info here.

The ENU Women’s Network is inviting colleagues, irrespective of gender identity, to join them as they build on the network over the coming months. You can learn more and get involved here.

Category: Women’s History

International Women’s Day – 8th March 2024

International Women’s Day – 8^th March 2024