Celebrated on March 8th every year, the International Women’s Day (IWD) is a day to commemorate the achievements of women worldwide, but also as a reminder of the many injustices the women face world-wide to this day. The official website for IWD describes the day as: “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality”.
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/About
The website also highlights the organisations goals as celebrating women’s achievements, raise awareness about women’s equality, lobbying for accelerated gender parity and fundraising for female-focused charities.
On the website of ‘The Big Issue’ International Women’s Day is summarised as “a time to recognise female trailblazers, to agitate for political change, to connect with women’s history and to take action for gender equality”.
International Women’s Day is an extremely significant step towards gender equality as it has the ability to inspire young girls and women to be who and what they want to be.
Rio 2016 Olympic high jumper Morgan Lake thinks that access to more female role models who young girls can relate to is key in inspiring them.
“With more women’s sport on the television, there are more opportunities for girls to discover their own role models, and this is absolutely crucial in inspiring the next generation of female athletes to keep going”.
This message was shared by BT Sport rugby presenter Sarra Elgan.
“When I was growing up, loving sport like I did, there were maybe not enough female role models or professional athletes that we could look up to in the media. But I think that’s changed now,” she says.
“For young girls growing up now, I think it’s started to change that they are seeing female athletes more everywhere”.
The celebration of the achievements of women is crucial in inspiring the next generation, with less girls being dissuaded from chasing their dreams in industries that may be perceived to be male dominated, such as sport.
Haydn Evans 