International Women's Day 2014 Theme: INSPIRING CHANGE

Inspiring Change is the 2014 theme for our internationalwomensday.com global hub and encourages
advocacy for women's advancement everywhere in every way. It calls for challenging the status quo for
women's equality and vigilance inspiring positive change.
The vast array of communication channels, supportive spokespeople, equality research, campaigns and
corporate responsibility initiatives means everyone can be an advocate inspiring change for women's
advancement.
Each year International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. The first International Women's
Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social
achievements of women. Organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's
groups, corporations and the media celebrate the day.

International Womens Day, which has existed for more than 100 years, was the product
of an era marked by rapid change and upheaval in the industrialized world. As the
planet's population grew and the demand for labor increased, and as new ideologies
took shape, women were thrust into a brave new world and confronted with a host of
challenges.
The first day dedicated to women was established in 1911, and it was observed for the
first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, when more than
1 million people attended rallies around the world to assert womens right to work, vote,
be trained and hold public office. Two years later, the day was officially changed to
March 8, the date on which it's been celebrated globally ever since as International
Womens Day.

Empowerment Quotes
Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity. -- Gandhi

Women are leaders everywhere you look -- from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500
company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our
country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy
stereotypes. -- Nancy Pelosi
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. -- Eleanor Roosevelt
Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and
delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size. -- Virginia
Woolf
The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. -Roseanne Barr
I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives
as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us.
-- Louisa May Alcott
"The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world." -- Charles
Malik
Inspirational
Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to
greatness. -- Oprah Winfrey
If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman. -Margaret Thatcher
In too many instances, the march to globalization has also meant the marginalization of
women and girls. And that must change. -- Hillary Clinton
"Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition." Marilyn Monroe
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! -- Maya
Angelou, African American Poet

Modern invention has banished the spinning wheel, and the same law of progress
makes the woman of today a different woman from her grandmother. -- Susan B.
Anthony, Women's Activist
Men and boys, we show our manhood through the way we treat our women. Our wives,
our sisters, our mothers. -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu
One is not born a woman, one becomes one. -- Simone de Beauvoir
Women are the real architects of society. -- Harriet Beecher Stowe
"A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice
can be remarkably difficult." -- Melinda Gates
A charming woman doesnt follow the crowd. She is herself. -- Loretta Young
Funny
I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women. But the truth is I've flunked
more often than not. I'm very fond of women; I admire them. But, like all men, I don't
understand them. -- Frank Sinatra
Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with
men. -- Joseph Conrad
"The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same
outfit in public." -- Phyllis Diller
A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous. -- Coco Chanel
"Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy, fat women." -Nicole Hollander
God gave women intuition and femininity. Used properly, the combination easily
jumbles the brain of any man I've ever met. -- Farrah Fawcett

By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular
time off. They are the great vacation-less class. -- Anne Morrow Lindberg

A time to focus and inspire change

IWD celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women, while focusing
world attention on areas requiring further action.