Today is also International Women’s Day, with this year’s theme being “Embrace Equity.” International Women’s Day was first celebrated on Feb. 28,1909, in New York City. Two years later, German socialist Luise Zietz proposed the holiday become an annually observed one that would celebrate various women’s issues, such as suffrage, so as to promote equal rights for women. The first few International Women’s Days were celebrated in a quite different fashion than they are nowadays, with hundreds of demonstrations taking place in Europe. During these demonstrations, women demanded they finally be given both the right to vote and to hold public office. Employment sex discrimination was also an important issue. Until 1977, Women’s Day was celebrated mainly in socialist countries. It was only after the United Nations General Assembly’s decision to proclaim March 8 as International Women’s Day in 1977 that the holiday gained worldwide popularity."

Kamloops This Week

“I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be

heard. … We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back,”

Malala Yousafzai

“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman,”

Margaret Thatcher

“You don’t have to be pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female’,”

Erin McKean