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Celebrating 100 Years Of International Women's Day

A hundred years ago something clicked in women's brains. We realised that collectively we could say "no". Sure, women had been saying "no" for centuries, but very rarely were we heard. And although history is dotted with exceptional female rebels, it appeared that too often women had survived by obediently saying "yes". But a new century brought about a new attitude.


The declaration of the first International Women's Day in 1911 saw women get together to campaign for the right to work, to vote and to hold public office. At the same time, others were taking up the call to say "enough".

Madame Curie probably said, "No, I'm not going to do the washing-up; I'm going to keep sitting at the laboratory bench, discover radium and win the Nobel Prize in physics." While Mary Thompson would have thought, "No, to hell with mopping the floor, I'm going to be Victoria's first bush nurse."

A slew of young girls who would become the most glamorous, respected icons of their age such as Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich were looking around at their world with wide eyes and thinking, "Nope, I’m not going to keep my mouth shut; I'm going out there into the limelight."

"No" is a powerful word and it's understanding that which has shifted us - we have only achieved what we did in the past century because we finally shook our heads and refused to settle.

The 100th anniversary of International Women's Day on March 8 is above all, a celebration of our liberation. It's a time to reflect on how far we've come and recognise there is still much to do in the battle for women's rights globally. Though many successes have been constrained by geography, social status and economic factors, women in the West, at least, are finally in charge of their bodies, their thoughts and their ideas.

The notion that we can do whatever the hell we want is only possible because of the women who courageously marched, shouted, protested, pioneered, laughed, loved (and danced) before us. It is their passionate spirit we celebrate today.

1911
International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time.

1912
Australia awards its first ever "baby bonus". The amount: £5.

Australia sends women to the Olympics for the first time. Sarah "Fanny" Durack wins the gold medal for the women's 100m freestyle.

1921
Edith Cowan becomes the first woman elected to an Australian parliament, in Western Australia.

Marie Stopes opens the UK's first birth control clinic in London.

1926
Coco Chanel designs the little black dress to international acclaim.

Agatha Christie's sixth novel, The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, hits the bestseller lists. Among English-language writers, only Shakespeare tops her on both the all-time sales list and being translated into the most foreign languages.

1929
English author Virginia Woolf publishes A Room Of One's Own.

1932
Amelia Earhart is the first person to cross the Atlantic in a solo flight.

1933
Katharine Hepburn wins her first Oscar, for Morning Glory, and goes on to win another three, making her the woman with the most Oscars for Best Actress.

1937
marie claire launches in France and is credited with establishing the modern women's magazine format, with fashion, beauty, health, current affairs and real-life stories.

1939
The first pair of nylons is sold.

1942
The Australian Women's Employment Board is established by the federal Labor government to set wage rates for women in wartime occupations.

Australian Nancy Wake (codenamed "the White Mouse’" by the Gestapo) saves the lives of hundreds of Allied troops with the help of the French Resistance, and becomes one of the most decorated war heroes of WWII.

1945
Harvard Medical School admits women for the first time.

1946
The United Nations is established. Eleanor Roosevelt is appointed as a US delegate and also elected chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The modern bikini is invented by French engineer Louis Réard.

1947
The Diary Of Anne Frank is first published, giving a young female voice to the horror of the Holocaust.

Christian Dior's "The New Look" ushers in a new silhouette in fashion.

1950
The Australian basic wage for female workers is set at 75 per cent of the male basic wage.

1955
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott and further fuelling the US civil rights movement.

1959
Barbie dolls are invented for children by Ruth Handler.

1961
Breakfast At Tiffany's starring Audrey Hepburn opens. It confirms her as a style icon, before she goes on to become the face of UNICEF.

Australian women gain access to the pill.

Julia Child co-authors the book on sophisticated home cooking, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, triggering the "foodie" revolution.

1963
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is published, launching the women's movement.

Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to go into space.

1965
Ceylon's (now Sri Lanka) Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the world's first female prime minister.

1966
Twiggy appears in her first photoshoot, becoming the poster girl for androgyny.

1967
The first Australian currency to feature a woman is issued on May 29, with 19th-century humanitarian Caroline Chisholm on the $5 note.

1969
Australian women win the right to equal pay.

1970
The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer hits bookstores, causing an international outrage, with some women keeping it wrapped in brown paper. By March 1971, it nearly sells out its second print run, and has been translated into eight languages.

1972
Gloria Steinem founds Ms. magazine. It sells out in eight days.

Australia's first Rape Crisis Centre opens.

1973
Helen Reddy is the first Australian to win a Grammy for "I Am Woman’". Her acceptance speech makes international headlines when she famously thanks God "because She makes everything possible".

The US Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade guarantees a woman's right to abortion.

On March 26, 1973, women are allowed on the floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time.

1974
Argentina's María Estela Martínez Cartas de Perón, better known as Isabel Perón, is the Western world's first female president, taking the helm after her husband, Juan Perón, dies.

1976
Barbara Walters simultaneously becomes television's first journalist to command a million-dollar salary and the first female anchor of a network evening news show.

1979
Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female prime minister.

Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Australian women are granted unpaid maternity leave.

1983
Madonna brings in a new era of sexual freedom with her debut album, Madonna.

Toni Morrison becomes the first African-American winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1984
Oprah Winfrey's TV hosting career begins.

1988
Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, the country's first female leader.

Sydney yachtie Kay Cottee becomes the first woman to sail unassisted and nonstop round the world.

1990
Aung San Suu Kyi wins the Burmese election, but is placed under house arrest by the country's ruling junta. She remains there for almost 15 of the 21 years from July 20, 1989, until her release in November last year.

1991
Australian female sailors are sent into a combat zone for the first time on board HMAS Westralia.

1994

Jennifer Aniston debuts "the Rachel" haircut.

1996
At 15 years and 282 days, Martina Hingis becomes the youngest person to win a Wimbledon title (Women's Doubles). She takes out the Singles title the following year.

1997
Madeleine Albright becomes the first female US Secretary of State.

Ellen DeGeneres comes out as a lesbian on US national television.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone is published.

1998
The US television series Sex And The City debuts, instantly becoming must-see viewing for women the world over for the next seven years.

2000
America's sweetheart Julia Roberts becomes the first female actress to join Hollywood's $20-million-a-movie club, previously the reserve of elite male stars.

2002
Halle Berry is the first African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar.

2003
Linda Burney is the first Aboriginal person elected to the NSW parliament and only the fourth Aboriginal woman elected anywhere in Australia.

2005
Kuwaiti women are granted the right to vote.

2008
Quentin Bryce is sworn in as the first female Governor-General of Australia.

2009
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is appointed the new Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the world's first openly lesbian head of government.

Michelle Obama becomes the first African-American first lady after her husband, Barack Obama is sworn in as the United States's 44th president.

2010
Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar, for The Hurt Locker.

Mary MacKillop is declared to be a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI. She becomes Australia's first saint.

Queensland's teenage sailor Jessica Watson completes a solo voyage around the world.

Julia Gillard becomes Australia's first female PM.