International Women’s Day celebration is today, the 8th of March all over the world; it is a day to celebrate the achievements of women, increasing visibility, and also call out gender inequality.
The International Women's Day 2021 is focused on #ChoosetoChallenge and it is a call for everyone to join hands to challenge different things in society and the world. Click To TweetLagosMums will be sharing the achievements of women, past and present in acknowledgement of their amazing feats; and how it has affected or is affecting our society.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is Choose to Challenge. We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.
Here are some past and present amazing women with notable achievements in our world today.
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris is an American politician and attorney serving as the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the United States’ first female vice president, the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, and the first African-American and first Asian-American vice president. Before this, in the 2016 US senate election, she was the second African-American woman and the first South Asian-American to serve in the United States Senate.
Because of her achievements, she is a role model for many younger women and girls all over the world, to chase their dreams and become pacesetters.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian-American economist and international development expert. She is the first woman and the first African to hold the office of the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation; she also sits on the boards of various large companies across the globe.
Read 10 Leadership Lessons we can learn from her.
She also served two terms as finance minister of Nigeria (2003–2006, 2011–2015) under President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan respectively. She was the first woman to serve as the country’s finance minister, the first woman to serve in that office twice; also the only finance minister to have served under two different presidents. In 2005, Euromoney named her global finance minister of the year.
Marie Curie
Among the past women celebrated on International Women’s Day is Marie Curie; she is a physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first and the only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice; also the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris in 1906.
Her amazing feats in science are a motivation to every young girl around the world to follow their dream and passion.
Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman is a 23 years old poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. In 2021, she delivered her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Read Also [ How we can celebrate gender equality as a family ]
Amanda Gorman had speech impediments during childhood, but she saw this as a gift and a strength; she developed her reading and writing skills to become a well outspoken young woman.
Folorunsho Alakija
Folorunsho Alakija is a Nigerian billionaire businesswoman, involved in fashion, oil, real estate, and other businesses. Alakija is ranked by Forbes as the richest woman in Nigeria with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. As of 2015, she is listed as the second most powerful woman in Africa after Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; also the 87th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
Agbani Darego
Agbani Darego born Agbani Asenite Darego is a Nigerian model and beauty queen, best known as the first native African to win Miss World. In 2001, Darego was crowned the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria. A few months later she was a contestant at Miss Universe; and became the first Nigerian to place among the top 10 semi-finalists; finishing seventh overall. She was the only one to wear a maillot as opposed to a bikini during the swimsuit competition.
International Women’s Day is a day not just to acknowledge these women, but every woman in the world; to applaud their exploits and also to create awareness on the long strain of inequality in our society towards women; to move us closer to a world where both genders are loved, accepted, and treated the same way without bias.
Read Also [Notable Heroines in Nigerian History]
