#ChooseToChallenge: “International Women’s Day 2021” meaning, history & celebrations

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Every March 8, African women dey join di rest of di world to celebrate di International Women’s Day.Di day dey important as e dey remind dem of di historic journey of women around di world don take to better dia lives.E dey come as reminder say while women don achieve some things, di journey still long and dem still get plenty work to do.Dis year theme na #ChooseToChallenge, e dey call on women to choose to challenge and call out any gender bias and inequality.E dey tell dem to challenge everything wey dey hold dem back to become better and dis na some of di things dis some of dis African women don do.Dem break di stereotypes, discriminations, gender inequality to become movers and shakers for dia various careers and dem continue to dey use dia voices and platforms to champion girls and women’s rights, access to quality education, economic opportunities, among others.

How “International Women’s Day start?

International Women’s Day, also known as IWD for short, develop out of di labour movement to become a recognised annual event by di United Nations (UN).

Di seeds of dis International Women’s Day na for 1908 dem plant am, wen 15,000 women march through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay and di right to vote. Na di Socialist Party of America wey declare di first National Woman’s Day, a year later.

Di idea to make di day international come from a woman wey name be Clara Zetkin. She suggest di idea in 1910 for one International Conference of Working Women inside Copenhagen. Na like 100 women bin dey there, from 17 countries, and dem agreed on her suggestion altogether.

Dem first celebrate am in 1911, inside Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Di 100 years anniversary alias centenary happun for 2011, so dis year we dey technically celebrating di 110th International Women’s Day.

Things become official in 1975 wen di United Nations begin to celebrate di day. Di first theme wey dem adopt for UN (in 1996) dem call am “Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future”.

International Women’s Day don become a date to celebrate how far women don come in society, in politics and in economics, while di political roots of di day mean strikes and protests go dey organised to raise awareness of continued inequality.