International Women’s Day is held worldwide every year on March 8th. Explore its significance and how WAW Travel wants to contribute to women’s wellbeing.
International Women’s Day is held worldwide every year on March 8th. Its celebration remains to be extremely necessary to draw the public attention on gender discrimination and on the violation of universal human rights, concepts that should be so crystal-clear by now. Sadly, the path still appears difficult all around the world, so let’s dive into the origins, the historical facts involved and the meaning that IWD carries nowadays.
Why is March 8th the celebration of International Women’s Day?
In 1910 during a meeting at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, the activist Clara Zetkin proposed to establish a worldwide day to celebrate women empowerment and social recognition, that would later become International Women’s Day. In fact, in the previous years critical debate led to great unrest among wider groups of women, that started to march and protest to obtain social justice and gender equality. In the US and especially in New York and Chicago there were the first organized assemblies, while in Europe developed in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Finland, Austria, and many more countries worldwide. For many decades IWD movement remained silent, until in 1975 the UN celebrated it and in 1977 officially established the Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
If you want to know a little more about the historical facts about IWD, click this link: A global history of women’s rights, in 3 minutes
In the Netherlands, women started reuniting in Dolle Mina group in 1969, with the slogans like “the woman decides” and “boss in her own belly.” On January 23rd, 1970, they stormed the Nijenrode Castle, a private Business University that was open only for men at the time, then followed by more manifestations and becoming a cultural reference for Dutch feminism.
Click this link to see footage of Dolle Mina group: Dolle Mina’s 1970 congress
IWD theme of 2020: Generation equality
Since 1996, UN establishes every year a theme to enhance awareness and involve as many people as possible in the discussion for International Women’s Day. The theme of International Women’s Day 2020 is equality, such a fundamental element often forgotten. Women still feel the social pressure to take on so many different roles, expected to be perfect in all of them. They have to be and do everything at once. Mother, wife, daughter, girlfriend, neighbour, colleague. As a woman, the feeling is that we demand it strongly from ourselves too. It is too much to fit in all the expectations, until it becomes unbearable, all this hard work not even being recognized many times. In our mind, equality is expressed also through the freedom of self recognition and the power to act and express our own individuality.
Reflecting on International Women’s Day, what does freedom mean to you?
For us, freedom means having a choice in how we live our life. That we can decide for what to think, say and do and that we have the power to choose how we react to something. How we think or what we do is our responsibility. What does freedom mean to you? Travel and visit new places? Practicing yoga or leave your daily life for a walking holiday? Would you like to focus on your vitality with a group of other women? We are happy to help you!
Women and wellbeing
How do you take care of your own wellbeing? How do you keep yourself in balance under the pressure of contemporary standards and demands? There are so many women who struggle to find a balance between work and family, who must re-organize their lives after drastic changes, women who are looking for “me time“, who find exciting to travel alone or women who just want to get away from work or home life.
Inspired by all these women celebrated in International Women’s Day, we started in 2019 WAW.travel, organizing individual and group travels related with wellbeing. This is for all women who are looking for freedom, peace, giving meaning, inner growth, development or a physical challenge.
We can offer different travel solutions and design them just for you!
This are some experiences we have already created for your needs, with the goal to contribute positively to women’s freedom and wellbeing, because that is what we wish for all women:
• 8-day walking holiday in Menorca;
• 15 days road trip in northern Spain;
• 4 days wellbeing holidays in Netherlands NP Maasduinen.
You can find many more on our official website and we can design tailored travels for you, Please let us know how we can contribute to your wellbeing and what kind of products you want us to create. Send your ideas to hey@waw.travel and follow us on our social media – Facebook – Instagram.
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