International Women's Day

Today marks the 100th International Women's Day.

International Women's Day is a global day aimed at celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women. It was created at a conference in Copenhagen in 1910 and first held in March 1911.

(See http://www.internationalwomensday.com/) for details on the various worldwide events taking place today, as well as for a detailed history of International Women's Day.)

What can you do in conjunction with today's 100th International Women's Day? Here are a few ideas:

SCHOOLS -- celebrate the life story of any woman who could be an inspiration to both your male and female students. Or simply ask each class to list the ten most inspiring or famous women they know. Have a discussion on why they think these women are important.

PARENTS -- remind your male children that boys are never to hit girls and that men never hit women.

BUSINESSES -- give surprises to some of your female customers today and tell them "thank you" for being mothers, daughters, sisters and women.

EVERYBODY - make a small contribution to a charity of choice that will help to alleviate poverty and illiteracy amongst women. (Statistics show that 70% of the world's poor are women and 65% of the estimated 780 million people who cannot read are women.) If everybody donated the price of a cup of coffee, a large influx of funds would be received by organizations working to end these situations.

What else can you think of? Please leave your ideas in the comment box below.