It's IWD!

So happy International Women's Day to you- it is tempting to try to write this all in purple green and white (the colours of the suffragette's and IWD but it would make it even harder to read I think.
I found nothing in my day to mark the day so resorted to Google who provided a visual for me.

This is very unlike my experiences in other years of IWD although not necessarily here. In schools at home things were often planned with people dressing in appropriate colours. One year when I was at Mackellar PS (a school named after a female Australian poet who wrote the iconic poem "I love a sunburnt country") we the staff decided to have a morning tea to celebrate International Women's Day and asked the men on the staff of which there were a few to bring the morning tea, which they duly did- not a lavish one of great cakes and delicious hot samplings but a substantial one that all could enjoy. George (the principal) had brought a special gift for Rhonda and myself which he had in a brown paper bag and which he said summed us up- he knew we could take a joke- it was a prickly pear because we were a prickly pair. Surprisingly enough I did find it amusing and was not at all offended.

On another occasion on IWD a group of us went to a fund raiser which was a literary one with Sara Paretsky. The quiz was about her books and the prize was ten (?) copies (that's how many were on each team) of her book. We thought it a great night as we won and then had the books signed by her.

And then this year I found out far too late that there were events to celebrate the centenary  of International Women's Day. The bridge walks sounded great but apart from anything else I was working so couldn't participate anyway but such a shame.
And so a little history or should I say herstory...

1911
Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. However less than a week later on 25 March, the tragic 'Triangle Fire' in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events. 1911 also saw women's 'Bread and Roses' campaign.