International Women's Day 8 March 2013

Today is International Women's Day. The first International Women’s Day (IWD) was celebrated in the United States in 1909 to honour the garment workers’ strike in New York the previous year. Since then, IWD has been celebrated in many countries around the world with events focused on improving rights, working conditions, and opportunities for women. 

In 1977, the United National General Assembly adopted a resolution designating March 8 as International Women’s Day.

A friend messaged me on Facebook today and asked what I was doing to support IWD. Here is my response:
(In my role as Labour's Education Spokesperson in Dundee), I am asking the Education Department to promote greater equality for young women in our Secondary Schools as measured by curricular choices.

This is consistent with the legal duties of the Council and Councillors under the terms of the the Equality Act 2010. This legislation introduced a new public sector general equality duty which became law across Britain. The general equality duty requires Scottish public authorities to pay 'due regard' to the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, victimisation and harassment; advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations. These requirements apply across the 'protected characteristics' of age; disability; gender reassignment; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion and belief; sex and sexual orientation.