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Azerbaijan marks March 8 â€“ International Womenâ€™s Day

08 March 2010 11:34 (UTC +04:00)

In 1910, a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ’Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women’s Day - to press for their demands.

The first IWD occurred in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland in 1911. During International Women’s Year in 1975, IWD was given official recognition by the United Nations and was taken up by many governments.

This holiday has started to be marked in Azerbaijan since 1917.

State Committee on Family, Women and Childrenâ€™s Problems was established in Azerbaijan in 1998. Azerbaijan is also represented in the Council of Europeâ€™s bureau on women and is a full-fledged member of the UN Commission on womenâ€™s issues.

In 1995, Azerbaijan joined the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

According to the official statistics, 70 per cent of women in Azerbaijan work in healthcare sector and 69 per cent of them work in education field.

There are 14 woman deputies in Azerbaijani Parliament. Women are also taking posts like committee chairwoman, Ombudswoman, deputy ministers, deputy heads of executive powers, heads of NGOs and media outlets.

March 8 â€“ International Womenâ€™s Day is a non-working day in Azerbaijan.