International Women's Day - Interview with Widney Brown

One hundred years ago, more than a million people marched in streets across Europe on the first International Women's Day, calling for an end to discrimination and for women to have the same rights as men to work, vote and shape the future of their countries.

One hundred years on, the reality is that women are still much more likely to be poor. They are more likely to be illiterate. They earn only 10 per cent of the world's income but do two thirds of the world's work. They produce up to 80 per cent of the food in developing countries but own only one per cent of the land. A lot has changed in the last 100 years, and yet many of the same problems remain. In many countries, government commitments to reforms have lagged behind needs. Discrimination still cuts deeply across societies, leaving a trail of inequality in its wake.

The call for equality, fairness and respect was at the heart of the first International Women's Day. A century on, it still is.