10 Facts You Need to Know About International Women's Day

On Friday, March 8th, millions of females from around the globe will be honoring women’s various social, economic, political, and cultural achievements that they have accomplished throughout history.

International Women's Day is celebrated to remember the inequality women faced in past, but also its continued existence in many cultures even until this day.

The first national women’s day dates back to 1908 when 15,000 women took to the streets in New York City to march for women’s labor and voting rights. The first International Women’s Day was celebrated the following year to commemorate the protests that had taken place in that same city the previous year.

Then, in 1910 during the International Women’s day conference in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin proposed an annual IWD that will promote equal rights for women and women’s suffrage and will be held on the same day in other countries around the world.
Several decades later, in 1975 the United Nations (UN) began an annual recognition and celebration of International Women’s Day.

The UN’s resources have ever since enabled women to pressure otherwise unresponsive governments in certain countries (for instance Latin America) and have contributed for significant improvements in women’s social and political rights, as well as in addressing gender discrimination. The UN, however, has not played a similar role in Canada and the United States.

Read on to discover some interesting facts you need to know about International Women's Day and don’t forget to express your love and gratitude to the women who make difference in your lives this March 8!

1. There are currently 17 countries with women as head of government or head of state.
   
   
2. The first female governor of a US state was Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross, elected in 1924. Wyoming was also the first state to give women the right to vote in 1869.
   
   
   
   
3. The first woman elected to serve in the Congress was Jeannette Rankin who was also the only member of US Congress to vote against entering WWII.
   
   
4. The sign (♀) used to symbolize the female sex is also an illustration representing the planet Venus and is believed to be a stylized symbol of the Roman goddess Venus's hand mirror.
   
   
   
   
5. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report, gender parity is over 200 years away.
   
   
6. The both highest IQ scores ever recorded belong to women.
   
   
   
   
7. Women speak about 20,000 words a day. That’s 13,000 more than the average man.
   
   
8. Purple is the official color of International Women's Day. It has long been associated with women's fight for gender equality.
   
   
   
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9. International Women’s Day is an official holiday in 15 countries including China, Ukraine, and Vietnam.
   
   
10. In Italy, women are given yellow mimosas by men.

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