With Jump Into Spring and Strong Awards coming up, SWSG is getting in the mood to celebrate! We’re thinking about how strong our community has become, and how we continue to grow each year. We’re impacting more and more girls, engaging more college women mentors, and our Strong Leaders program is better than ever. Jump Into Spring in Boston this year will be SWSG’s biggest yet, with almost 800 girls, mentors, community partners, and staff coming together for an organization wide jump-rope-a-thon! In the next month or so, we won’t be the only ones celebrating. All over the world on March 8th, communities will come together to celebrate International Women’s Day.
International Women's Day Inspired by the labor movements of the 20th century, during a period of change throughout the world, International Women’s Day began as a way to fight for women’s rights, which included rights such as voting, holding public office, and ending discrimination in the workplace.  It has been used as a basis to protest war, as a model to uphold basic human rights around the world. Most importantly, it has become a day of celebration and appreciation of the strong women that have done extraordinary things in the past, present, and future. Women’s Day has been celebrated on March 8th since 1975, as part of a United Nations Resolution.
The United Nations has played an integral role in the spread of International Women’s Day as a global event, with the hope of raising awareness to the issues that still exist in the world as they relate to women’s rights. Since 1996, it has attached a theme to the celebrations of the day, allowing us to look to the future. In the past, the themes have been “Women Uniting for Peace” (2000),  ‘Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls (2007), Equal Access to Education, Training, and Science and Technology: Pathway to Decent Work for Women” (2011). Last year’s theme, “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures”, and this year’s, “A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women” are particularly relatable to us at SWSG, as we strive to foster strong girls that will become strong women.
On March 8th, people all over the world will celebrate the strong women in their lives. In more than 30 countries, International Women’s day in considered a national holiday, and traditionally, women are given flowers from their families and friends. The flower that usually symbolizes International Women’s Day in the Silver Wattle, which might be hard to get your hands on since it needs a very temperate climate to grow in. Here, you can find a tutorial on how to make your own paper flowers to give to the women you appreciate.

The Silver Wattle is the flower traditionally given to women in celebration of IWD.

The Silver Wattle is the flower traditionally given to women in celebration of IWD.


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