Let’s do it: Celebrate International Women’s Way – Every Day! This year, check out a most exciting and ambitious endeavour: Room to Read history: She Creates Change, a multimedia storytelling project. An animated video delves in to number of girls’ and women’s stories and project as they are doing incredibly brave and ground breaking things around the world.

Apropos inspiring, here is another video just in: Today I Rise. Take the few minutes to delve into new worlds. I found both these offerings absolutely inspiring!

I think you might enjoy a previous post in honour of International Women’s Day as well. Each year, March 8 is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women and renew our efforts in achieving gender equality… at home and around the world.  Let’s do it!  Each in our own way, joining together, rejoice and dig in! We’re in this together, and for the long haul.

And here’s an international perspective, courtesy of my favourite good news source, Future Crunch The lead article in the current issue has a whopping list of positive developments in women’s issues, in the last year alone, all around the world.  I was startled and encouraged…here are a couple of stats that caught my attention.

More girls are completing high school, fewer are having children, more have access to family planning, fewer child marriages take place, female genital mutilation has decreased and the proportion of girls being infected by HIV has fallen. It’s not enough – but it shows that progress is possible. UNICEF

Around 90 million women of working age have gained full legal equality in the last decade. It’s not even close to enough. Billions of women remain disenfranchised, and dismantling centuries of patriarchy is going to take generations. It is a start though. In 2010, no woman in the world had the same legal rights as a man (h/t to our friends at the Progress Network for this one).

Women’s groups in India are one of the world’s largest and most successful examples of community development? Over 80 million women participate in 7.5 million groups, and in the past decade they’ve become a key component of the country’s economy, contributing to one of the biggest and quickest reductions of poverty in history. Project Syndicate.

British Columbia has become the first jurisdiction in Canada to make prescription contraception free to all residents. This includes oral hormone pills, contraceptive injections, intrauterine devices, subdermal implants and the morning-after pill. “This is a win for health, and it’s a win for gender equity in our province.” CBC

“Action is the antidote to despair.”  That’s Joan Baez.  On International Women’s Day, and beyond, let us be inspired by Joan, consummate female activist, model for many. Let’s do it: Celebrate International Women’s Way – Every Day!

International Women's Day

Jill Schroder is the author of BECOMING: Journeying Toward Authenticity.  BECOMING is an invitation for self-reflection, and to mine our memorable moments for insights, meaning, and growth.  Check the website for a sample chapter, or see the reviews to get a flavor for the volume.  Follow me on Twitter, let’s be friends on Facebook 🙂

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