International Women's Day

An early start to International Women’s Day must be Kathryn Bigelow winning the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker. She’s the first woman in the eight-two year history of the awards.

International Women’s Day is the recognition and celebration of women and their achievements. Many women can be remembered on this day, mother, sister, aunt, grand mother, sister and friend. There are many famous women who changed lives through their individual pursuits and in devour, Helen Keller, Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Clinton, Angela Merkel, Gina Reinhart, Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth Garret Anderson and Amelia Earhart.

However, without the pioneering efforts of women and men during the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries we would not have the freedom to recognise the achievements of these women. One such pioneer was John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) who wrote on the inequality faced by women, in the late Victorian era. Emancipation of women was a feature of his book, ‘The subjection of Women’ 1869. This short article from the Dumbarton Herald, June 10th, 1869, reports on a piece written in the Telegraph about Mr. Mills book. Without the forward thinking and determination of the men and women of our past, I wouldn’t have the opportunities afforded me today, the freedom to be an emancipated, educated, free woman.

Dumbarton Herald, 10th June, 1869