International Women's Day/Year
The United Nations declared 1975 as International Women�s Year (IWY) to promote women�s social and political rights. As part of this, March 8th was chosen as International Women�s Day. This day has been celebrated annually ever since.
Activities to mark the year were held around the world �� and Newfoundland and Labrador was no exception. The Newfoundland Status of Women Council (NSWC) received federal funds for a Local Initiatives Project (LIP) that enabled the hiring of nine part-time staff at the St. John�s Women�s Centre. This staff set up a speakers bureau, produced pamphlets on women�s issues, and set up courses for women � such as auto mechanics, carpentry, and women studies. The NSWC also held a Women�s Day of Health (to provide information on issues not commonly discussed at the time, such as birth control and menopause) and sent a representative, Lillian Bouzanne, to the IWY conference in Mexico.
The NSWC wasn�t the only busy group. The Corner Brook Status of Women Council opened a Women�s Centre in 1975 and the Central Newfoundland Status of Women got its start. Pro-Feminae, a team from the Canada Employment�s Centre in St. John�s toured the province to raise awareness about women�s employment issues. The Women�s Institutes developed seminars for rural women about legal issues and worked with the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) to hold a provincial conference called �Women � Creative Leadership.�
It was an exciting time as expressed by Helen Symonds in the excerpt below from a NSWC newsletter:
I WAS BORN on March 8th, 1975 and yet I am 36 years old� For years I have been living and wondering why I have felt different than the people around me �Then on March 8th of this year, I forced myself, with my husband's insistence, to attend INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY�What I experienced from that day�was of such magnitude that it was like being born. Of course, I am still in the infant stage but am learning all the time �that it is great being a woman, that even though I am someone's wife and someone's mother, I also am a person with a very real identity of my own�
- Excerpt from �I Was Born on International Women�s Day� by Helen Symonds (NSWC Newsletter, Nov. 75, Vol. II. No. 9)