Women's day in Australia

Women’s Day is a day which is celebrated on a global scale to look through and appreciate the achievements of women in various fields including social, political and economic. This year in 2018 the International Women’s Day is falling on 8th if March, Wednesday. The extraordinary courage of some of the women has salvaged the whole community from getting trapped in the hands of some ugly taboos that has existed in the society from last many years and has been gradually eating up by the community like termites. The problem does not exist in one or other part of the world but it has trapped the whole mankind throughout the world. The only difference is that in some parts women face these taboos to a larger scale while in some parts it is not that strong.

Be it India, USA, Australia or any other country women have been living under conditions that has not allowed them to grow as per their abilities. So, in order to embolden them and take them forward to raise their voice for their rights, this special day of special significance has been devised. The people of Australia like many other countries celebrate this day to appreciate and be grateful for the contributions that women have made to the society. Here’s how people of Australia celebrate this day:

The suffrage movement for women’s right was strong in Australia. One of the most celebrated victories of the movement was the right granted to women to vote same as men. The Commonwealth parliament in 1902 approved the right to vote for women and also the right stand in the parliamentary elections. It was worth noting that the first country which implemented to grant both of these rights was Australia. And the next in the series was Finland.

Since then more and more women have been involved themselves in parliamentary election and has represented various parliamentary seats. But the issue has yet not been resolved completely and the still there exist disproportion of number of women in national electorate. In Australia, various promulgations to grant equal quotas to women in Parliaments and within the political structures have been made.

The movement to get women free out of the shackles has been widespread in the country. It was well structured and was highly successful here in Australia. Much before the women’s day came into existence, in 1884, the first women’s society was established in Melbourne which was joined by Women’s Christian Union. The society later proved to be very helpful throughout the movement.

In 2016, the Government of Australia decided to use a female pedestrian symbol to honour Women’s Day in Melbourne and with that it became the first country to do so. Consequently, it replaced the red and green man which was the standard symbol on the traffic lights. The new symbol carried the picture of Mary Roger who was the first women to be elected to the local Government in the state of Victoria and second women to have been elected in to the local Government of Australia.