International Women’s Day – what’s on
Credit: UN Women/Yihui Yuan.
The theme for the 2021 edition of International Women’s Day (IWD) on Monday 8 March is ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world‘. In the spirit of the event, swivel your attention to obstreperous women in Islington and beyond.
SohoRadio is hosting a three-day programme of events between 7 and 9 March to mark IWD, including over 60 shows from across the globe by female presenters and DJs.
The Friends of Islington Museum are celebrating the day with an online presentation called ‘Choosing to Challenge: Islington’s Inspirational Women (1547-2021)’, that looks at the rich historical heritage of the many pioneering women in Islington since 1547.
Between 18 and 26 March the Human Rights Watch Film Festival will be back on online format, featuring noteworthy woman-made movies including A Thousand Cuts by Ramona Diaz, a documentary about extra-judicial killings in the Philippines; Belly of the Beast by Erika Cohn, a documentary about the experience of women in the California prison system; and Ashley O’Shay’s Unapologetic, a film about women in the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Museum of London has a virtual exhibition to celebrate Women’s History Month (March), with videos, articles and pictures featuring women depicted on Roman tombs to suffragettes and more.
The motto of soon-to-open East End Women’s Museum is ‘Women Make History every day’. In East London, think of the Bow Matchwomen’s Strike of 1888 when over 1,4000 women and girls won pay increases through industrial action, or the Ford Dagenham sewing machinsts’ walkout of 1968 that led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970.
The founders of the museum project have been staging a series of temporary exhibitions and events since 2015, but later this year there are plans for the the museum to be given a permanent home in a new building in Barking where these and other stories will be told.
The museum launched its crowdfunder campaign, ‘Women make history’, back in December last year to raise the vital funds needed. The crowdfunding campaign closes on 12 March.