Banner Event To Mark Int’l Women’s Day March 8

The Bureau of Gender Affairs (BGA), an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, will be hosting a banner event to mark International Women’s Day (IWD), which will be observed on Tuesday, March 8.

The event, scheduled to take place at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston, will be held under the IWD’s theme, ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’.

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, is expected to bring greetings at the event.

Speaking at the IWD Church Service on Sunday (March 6), at the Boulevard Baptist Church, 2 Washington Boulevard, Kingston 20, Acting Principal Director, Gender Affairs and Head of the BGA, Sharon Coburn-Robinson, said that the celebration of IWD marks the increasing recognition of the struggles of women against all forms of discrimination and exploitation.

She added that it also focuses on the need for equality, national liberation, democracy, peace and progress in countries worldwide.

Mrs. Coburn-Robinson said that March 8 was specifically chosen to commemorate the day because it is associated with significant events emerging from the Women’s Rights Movement during the early 1900s.

She noted that one important event occurred on March 8, 1908, when women needle workers in New York, United States of America, had reacted against “the brutal exploitation and held a demonstration to fight for the establishment of a needle trade workers union and demanded the right to vote”.

“Because the rally was so successful, it led to other similar rallies in other cities in the United States and in other countries,” she said.

Mrs. Coburn-Robinson pointed out that IWD became a reality in October 1975 at the World Congress for International Women’s Year in Berlin, when a decision was taken to recognise March 8 as International Women’s Day in all countries.