International Women’s Day will be celebrated in countries around the world today. It is a day that celebrates women’s achievements in all spheres of life, whether social, political, or economical, while raising awareness around, and building support, for women’s rights. 

According to the United Nations website, the first National Women’s Day emerged in the United States on Feb. 28, 1909 after the Socialist Party of America decided to honour the women that protested their working conditions in a garment factory in New York. 

Europe eventually adopted a Women’s Day in 1910, followed by Russia in 1913. Russian women adopted an International Women’s Day as a part of the peace movement during World War One. The following year, women held rallies across Europe to protest the war. These rallies usually took place on or around March 8. 

After World War Two, other countries started to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. 

In 1975, which marked International Women’s Year, the United Nations started to celebrate March 8. Two years later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution that declared March 8th as the “United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace." 

Since then, the International Women’s Day movement has grown. 

This year’s theme for the United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.”

In Quebec, the Collectif 8 mars, a collective that represents over 700,000 women across the province and works together to promote International Women's Rights Day,  proposes a different theme for the celebration each year. The collective’s chosen theme for this year is “Feminist Resistance.”

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Coalition of women's groups of Haute-Yamaska and Brome-Missisquoi is hosting a bilingual event at the Chevaliers de Colomb in Cowansville tonight. Running under the Collectif 8 mars’ chosen theme, the event is all about bringing women together under one roof to share, learn, laugh, and have fun. 

The coalition is composed of women’s shelters Maison Alice Desmarais and Maison Horizon pour elle, women’s centres Centre de femmes Entr’Elles, Centre Femmes des Cantons, and Avante Women’s Center, and the Centre d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (CALACS) Des Rivières Haute-Yamaska Brome-Missisquoi. 

“For me it’s important because we went through a lot and we fought for this, for our rights. I believe that for all the women that ever fought for us, we need to continue and celebrate this beautiful day,” said Christine La Roche, member of the Avante Women’s Center team.

A night of celebration for International Women’s Day is nothing new for the coalition as they put on an event every year. 

“We like to spoil the women with a show and a light evening just to have fun between women and to celebrate this beautiful day that we worked so hard to have,” mentioned La Roche. 

La Roche described this evening as an opportunity for “women to speak out.” 

“This evening we will be having women come and talk to us about their life stories. We have four women coming from different places. We have Sarah-Mariah who is going to be doing some slamming,” highlighted La Roche. “We have Nathalia Vélez from the CAB Cowansville (Centre d’Action de Bénévole). She is the director and she will be speaking to us about her experience as an immigrant woman. We have Teprine, who is a farmer and she has Le Noyau, she will there.”

Billie-Anne Leduc, a returning guest, will also be performing,

“She is a poet. She was with us last year and everyone appreciated it, she has a new poem for us. Between every women speaker that we have invited, (…) we are going to be showing something that we (the coalition) each made in our centre. It’s artsy and something to represent the women that come to our centres,” noted La Roche. “We just got a group together, we made something to speak out, just to represent us as women and our centres.”

When asked if the goal of the event is meant to inspire other women, La Roche said “exactly, that’s what we wanna do.”

“The four women that are present they will be speaking about their life stories, when they had to fight. Being women, we have to fight a little bit more. So, they’re going to be there to say all of the things they went through,” she noted. 

La Roche encouraged women to reach out to the Coalition of Women's Groups of Haute-Yamaska and Brome-Missisquoi if they need help. 

“People can just come and see us, we have the centres open if they need. They can feel free to call any of the centres. (…) You just have to call us if you need anything and we’re always ready to help all of the women of Brome-Missisquoi and Haute-Yamaska,” she mentioned. 

CIDI reached out to Maison Horizon Pour Elle, but they were not available for comment. 

We also reached out to the Centre Femmes des Cantons, but they were not comfortable in doing an interview with us. However, they did comment to CIDI on why the theme “Feminist Resistance” was chosen this year. According to the centre, the theme was chosen to highlight the need to keep fighting for women’s rights, gender, equality, and social inclusion and to not give up.

More information on the Coalition of Women's Groups of Haute-Yamaska and Brome-Missisquoi and contact information for the different women’s groups can be found here.

Listen to the full interview below: