March Means Honouring Women
March is Honouring Women Month and the Women's Resource Centre's (WRC) theme for this 10th anniversary event is Educate. Enlighten. Empower.
The theme highlights the fact that women, in order to realize their true potential and contribute at all levels of society, have to be educated, enlightened and most of all, empowered.
One of Honouring Women Month's highlights is the worldwide celebration of the United Nations' International Women's Day (IWD) which is Saturday, 8 March.
Cayman's IWD observance will start on Friday, 7 March, when Minister for Health and Human Services, the Hon Anthony S. Eden, OBE, JP, will join the WRC to host a ceremony, in which Speaker of the House, Hon Edna M. Moyle, JP, will be keynote speaker.
Also on Friday, the IWD ceremony will be followed by an Empowerment Seminar that will comprise two panel discussions. The first will revolve around Educate. Enlighten. Empower, while the theme for the second panel is Investing in Girls and Women, which is the United Nation's 2008 IWD theme. "We are looking forward to having stimulating discussions on these pertinent themes with the seminar participants and the diverse group of well-known panelists," said WRC Director, Tammy Ebanks Bishop.
Started in the early 1900s, IWD is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. Today, the UN's central organizing principles include the statement that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic, and political problems can be achieved without the full participation and empowerment of the world's women.
The WRC's 10th Annual 5K Walk/Run celebrating IWD will be held at the West Bay Road Public Beach on 8th March.
Other events in Cayman's Honouring Women Month celebration include a church service; a poetry and photo contest; book displays; an Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs conference, and educational sessions in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac, together with sporting activities and discounts for women at various local businesses.
The public is encouraged to participate in the Take Our Daughter and Sons to Work Day, an HWM event being observed on 28th March. In a move to encourage children to assess possible careers without restrictions imposed by gender stereotypes, it is suggested that fathers (or male mentors) bring daughters and mothers (or female mentors) bring sons to their workplaces.
"We've tried to ensure that our events represent the many roles that women now play in our society, and that the variety will enable a diverse range of people to participate in Honouring Women Month," said WRC Director Tammy Ebanks Bishop.
For more information about the month's activities visit www.wrc.gov.ky, contact 949-0006 or email wrc@gov.ky.
For further information contact: Aare Toomist