IWD: International Women's Day – did you know?

International Women's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world on 8 March. It is a day when women are recognised for their past achievements whilst also remembering that there is still more to do to achieve gender parity.

Kingsley Napley are proud to support #PressforProgress and, like last year, we are publishing a series of blogs to promote discussion around gender parity and the continued relevance of International Women’s Day. To get us started here are some questions to test your knowledge.

1.When was International Women’s Day first held? 

A - 1908
B - 1911
C - 1975

Reveal answer...

B - 1911

A tricky one to start with as all three answers could be correct. It is recorded that in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding voting rights, better pay and shorter working hours. In 1911, International Women's Day was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March when more than one million people attended rallies campaigning for women's rights.

 

2. According to the World Economic Forum, how many years will it take to close the economic gender gap?

A - 83
B - 170
C - 217

REVEAL ANSWER...

C - 217

The Global Gender Gap Report 2017 published by the World Economic Forum reports that at the current rate the economic gender gap, which takes into account wage parity and labour market participation, will not be closed for another 217 years. The report found that the overall global gender gap will take 100 years to close (an increase from 83 years in the previous year’s report) and “globally, gender parity is shifting into reverse for the first time since the World Economic Forum started measuring it.”

 

3. What percentage of parliamentarians globally are women? 

A - 23.3%
B - 33.3%
C - 43.3%

REVEAL ANSWER...

A - 23.3%

According to the Women in Politics 2017 Map, created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, as at 1 January 2017 the world average of women in national parliaments was 23.3%. In Europe, the average falls to 22.5%. 

 

4. According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime

True
False

REVEAL ANSWER...

True

A 2013 report developed by the World Health Organisation, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the South Africa Medical Research Council, using existing data from over 80 countries found that worldwide, 1 in 3, or 35%, of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by someone other than a partner. 

 

5. How many girls of primary school age will never set foot in a classroom?

A - 5 million
B - 10 million
C - 15 million

REVEAL ANSWER...

C - 15 million

According to a joint paper by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring Report published in 2016 entitled “Leaving no one behind: How far on the way to universal primary and secondary education?”, “girls are more likely than boys to remain completely excluded from education, despite the efforts and progress made over the past two decades. According to UIS data, 15 million girls of primary school age will never have the opportunity to learn to read and write in primary school, compared to about 10 million boys.”

 

6. Between 1901 and 2017, the Nobel Prize and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 585 times to 923 people and organizations. How many times has a Nobel Prize been award to a woman? 

A - 37
B - 49
C - 96

REVEAL ANSWER...

B - 49

The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 49 times between 1901 and 2017. However only 48 women have been awarded the prize because Marie Curie received the award twice (in 1903 and 1911). 

 

7. When did women first get the right to vote in the UK? 

A - 1918
B - 1928
C - 1938

REVEAL ANSWER...

A - 1918

Another slightly tricky question. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act was passed which allowed women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification to vote. It was not until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 however that women over 21 were able to vote and women finally achieved the same voting rights as men.

 

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IWD is an opportunity to build on the progress that has been made towards gender parity and to celebrate the achievements of women on a global scale. This year, #PressforProgress.