Yahoo News How to celebrate International Women’s Day 2020
A globally recognised celebration that has been observed since the early 1900s, International Women’s Day commemorates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world every year on 8 March.
Here is our guide to the many wonderful ways in which you can show your support for this year’s event.
What to do
Look Up London is hosting a series of walking tours in celebration of London’s unsung women, following in the footsteps of spies, suffragettes, artists, politicians, actresses and scientists. Among these are history’s great heroines, such as the pioneering mathematician Ada Lovelace; the 17th-century rebel Nell Gwynn; Nancy Astor, the first female member of parliament; Annie Brewster, one of the first black nurses in Victorian London; Rose Heilbron, England’s first female judge and the first woman to lead in a murder case; and the activist and aristocrat Mary Delany.
From the women of Whitechapel and the ladies of Marylebone to the female rebels of Tate Modern and the wonder women of Hampstead Cemetery, the programme traverses the breadth of London to honour those women who changed the world.
For more information, visit www.lookup.london.
Where to eat
Alex Hely-Hutchinson, the founder of Covent Garden’s 26 Grains, has invited some of the best female chefs in London to join her in the kitchen at her new Borough Market restaurant, Stoney Street, for a one-off lunch championing women in the industry. On Sunday 8 March, Hely-Hutchinson and the restaurant’s head chef Henrietta Inman will be joined by Sarit Packer of Honey & Co, Shuko Oda from Koya, Freddie Janssen of Snackbar and the food writer Anna Jones in creating a feast inspired by the women who have shaped their lives, with all profits going to Women for Women, a charity supporting female survivors of war.
Tickets cost £45 and can be purchased here.
Support women who have experienced domestic violence, homelessness, sexual exploitation and criminal activity by sampling the delectable cakes and crisp pastries they have made at the Luminary Bakery. The East London café trains such disadvantaged women to become professional bakers and offers them paid employment, as well as access to a supportive community. After six months they gain two qualifications, providing them with the skills they need to secure further employment.
Try their coffee and cardamom sponge, sticky toffee and date layer cake or gluten-free salted-caramel brownies.
For more information, visit www.luminarybakery.com.
What to buy
The White Company will be selling a beautiful necklace designed by its founder Chrissie Rucker, with £20 from every sale going towards Women Supporting Women at the Prince’s Trust’s #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign.
Made from sterling silver, the dainty chain is adorned with an elegant Swarovski-stone embellished ‘X’ pendant, and costs £39.
The White Company hopes to raise £10 million throughout the next five years for the cause, whose primary aim is to help disadvantaged young women into a first job, further education or to start a business.
To purchase a necklace, visit www.thewhitecompany.com.
The beauty brand Sarah Chapman is also supporting the Prince’s Trust’s ‘Women Supporting Women initiative’ with its illuminating elixir, Skinesis Glow. Combining a serum that rejuvenates the skin at a cellular level and a blend of vitamins, peptides, omega oils and digital defenders, Glow leaves your skin feeling fresh and radiant.
Sarah Chapman’s Skinesis Glow costs £64, with £10 from each donated to Women Supporting Women.
What to watch
“I told you not to take me to a hospital with women doctors!” screams a wounded man from a stretcher as blood pools around his head in the new film The Perfect Candidate. “People won’t succeed if their chief is a woman.” The woman in question is Maryam (Mila Al Zahrani), a medic who struggles to be taken seriously in Saudi Arabia’s deeply patriarchal society (case in point: the earlier protesting patient refuses her care because of her gender, and is tended to by male nurses who misdiagnose his illness).
When the water-logged road leading up to her clinic becomes increasingly difficult to access, and local authorities refuse to prioritise its repair, the strong-willed Maryam takes matters into her own hands by running for municipal council. The director Haifaa Al-Mansour – who herself battled against ingrained sexism to become Saudi Arabia’s first female film-maker – adroitly details her country’s resistance to women’s leadership in the movie with a knowing blend of cynicism and hope. Maryam’s historic campaign is tellingly spurred on by the real-life American trend of novice women politicians, tired of the way their communities are being run, standing for election (last year’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez documentary Knock Down the House springs to mind). Traversing international borders with its clear-eyed depiction of female empowerment, The Perfect Candidate is an incisive and ultimately uplifting study of the fight for women’s rights. Yasmin Omar
‘The Perfect Candidate’ is released in cinemas on 13 March.
