March 8 marked the 100th an­niver­sary of the cel­e­bra­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day, or IWD as it is more pop­u­lar­ly known.In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day was first cel­e­brat­ed in 1911, fol­low­ing a de­ci­sion tak­en at the sec­ond In­ter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence of Work­ing Women held in Copen­hagen in 1910.The con­fer­ence had been at­tend­ed by more than 100 women from 17 coun­tries, rep­re­sent­ing labour unions, so­cial­ist par­ties, work­ing women's clubs, and the first three women elect­ed to the par­lia­ment of Fin­land.

At the con­fer­ence, Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women's Of­fice of the So­cial De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty in Ger­many, pro­posed that every coun­try should cel­e­brate a Women's Day an­nu­al­ly, to en­able women to press for their de­mands.Her pro­pos­al was agreed unan­i­mous­ly, and the first cel­e­bra­tions took place in 1911 in Aus­tria, Den­mark, Ger­many and Switzer­land, where more than one mil­lion women and men at­tend­ed IWD ral­lies.

They cam­paigned for the end of dis­crim­i­na­tion against women, and their rights to work, vote, ac­cess train­ing, and hold pub­lic of­fice.This year, mark­ing the cen­te­nary of In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day, we cel­e­brate women's con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­eties glob­al­ly, through their paid em­ploy­ment and un­paid work in the home.We al­so high­light the need for fur­ther op­por­tu­ni­ties for women's ed­u­ca­tion, train­ing and em­ploy­ment in fields such as the trades, sci­ences and tech­nol­o­gy.

The in­ter­na­tion­al agen­cies led by the Unit­ed Na­tions have put in place in­ter­na­tion­al laws, such as the Con­ven­tion on the Elim­i­na­tion of All Forms of Dis­crim­i­na­tion against Women (CEDAW), and the De­c­la­ra­tion on the Elim­i­na­tion of Vi­o­lence Against Women, to which in­di­vid­ual UN mem­ber states, in­clud­ing T&T, have rat­i­fied or signed up.And na­tion­al gov­ern­ments have been putting in place gen­der poli­cies, leg­is­la­tion, and pro­grammes of ac­tion to pro­mote women's full and equal cit­i­zen­ship.What have women in Trinidad and To­ba­go achieved dur­ing the last 100 years? The fol­low­ing list of mile­stones is by no means ex­haus­tive and bears not­ing.

mile­stones

• 1924: Men aged 21 and over and women aged 30 and over are giv­en the right to vote.

• 1932: Gladys Eileen Ram­saran of Guyana is the first woman ad­mit­ted to the Bar in T&T.

• 1936: Au­drey Jef­fers gives a speech on The Ur­gent Needs of Women in Trinidad, de­scrib­ing the plight of the "mid­dle-class ed­u­cat­ed negress" who is de­nied gain­ful em­ploy­ment in the civ­il ser­vice. She al­so dis­cuss­es the rise of pros­ti­tu­tion in Port-of-Spain and the fail­ure of men to sup­port their il­le­git­i­mate off­spring.

• 1936: Jef­fers is the first woman elect­ed to Port-of-Spain's City Coun­cil as an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date for the West­ern Ward, with back­ing from the Trinidad Labour Par­ty. She faces a bar­rage of op­po­si­tion and de­fends her de­ci­sion by un­der­lin­ing the use­ful­ness to the Coun­cil of in­clud­ing a woman with so­cial con­cerns.

• 1946: All men and women aged 21 and over are al­lowed to vote.

• 1950: Coun­cil­lor Beryl Archibald-Crichlow is the first woman elect­ed May­or (of San Fer­nan­do).

• 1955: The Po­lice Ser­vice ad­mits women re­cruits.

• 1961: Is­abel Teshea is the first woman elect­ed to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

• 1963-1967: Teshea is the first woman to serve as a Cab­i­net Min­is­ter.

• 1970: Teshea is the first woman ap­point­ed to serve as an Am­bas­sador of T&T (to Ethiopia).

• 1976: The right to vote is ex­tend­ed to men and women 18 years and over.

• 1977: Ca­lyp­so Rose is the first woman to win the Road March in 35 years of com­pe­ti­tion.

• 1978: Ca­lyp­so Rose is the first woman to win the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion, since it start­ed in 1939.

• 1994: Marie To­by is the first woman cap­tain of a steel­band (Re­demp­tion Sound Set­ters).

• 1995: Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is the first woman ap­point­ed as At­tor­ney-Gen­er­al.

• 1995-2005: Amoy Chang Fong is the first woman to serve as Deputy Gov­er­nor of the Cen­tral Bank.

• 2000: Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­comes the first woman to act as Prime Min­is­ter.

• 2004: Sharon Al­fon­so be­comes the first woman Lieu­tenant Colonel in the T&T Reg­i­ment.

• April 2007: Dr Lin­da Ba­boolal is the first woman to act as Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad & To­ba­go.

• 2007-2008: The Trinidad & To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion elects Karen de Mont­brun as its first woman Pres­i­dent.

• 2009: Fay Ann Lyons-Al­varez is the first woman to win the Pow­er So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tion; and the first woman to take four ma­jor ti­tles in the Car­ni­val Sea­son (Pow­er So­ca Monarch, Groovy So­ca Monarch, bmo­bile Peo­ple's Choice and Road March).

• 2010: Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­comes: the first woman elect­ed to lead a po­lit­i­cal par­ty (Jan­u­ary); the first woman Leader of the Op­po­si­tion (Feb­ru­ary); and the first woman Prime Min­is­ter (May).

• 2010: Mar­cia Ay­ers-Cae­sar is the first woman to serve as Chief Mag­is­trate.