Sunday 8 March marked International Women’s Day, which has been celebrated since 1911. This falls under the wider celebration of Women’s History Month throughout March.
This year’s theme was “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,” promoting equal justice for all women globally.
According to the United Nations, women only have 64 per cent of the legal rights that men hold worldwide.
The University of Edinburgh has a rich history surrounding women’s equality, being home to the Edinburgh Seven — the first matriculated female students at any British university.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, Edinburgh University invited Caroline Criado-Perez, OBE and author of the best-selling book Invisible Women, to deliver their annual IWD talk on Saturday 7 March.
The talk took place in the Edinburgh Futures Institute, which was once the Royal Infirmary, seeing many women pass through its doors as patients and as medical professionals.
It is part of a collection of events to celebrate 300 years of Edinburgh Medical School, which Criado-Perez highlighted was not 300 years of women in Edinburgh Medical School.
Criado-Perez emphasised that celebrating International Women’s Day remains so important this year because of “how hard it is for women to succeed… in today’s context, which is pretty grim,” highlighting the change in political attitudes over the last decade.
Breaking down her research within Invisible Women, she referenced several pioneering female and transgender figures within the history of the University of Edinburgh, such as James Barry.
Criado-Perez described history as “one big data gap,” highlighting key gendered medical gaps that still exist today. These included the male body being treated as the default, preclinical trials using male cells and animals, and the problems we are increasingly facing due to AI.
However, she was clear that International Women’s Day should not focus only on the progress that is still to be made, but to celebrate where we are today. She stated:
“Above all, in the face of helplessness and hopelessness, we will get ourselves up and we will persist.”
Themes of persistence, allyship, and the importance of female trailblazers were seen throughout the talk.
One student told The Student: “Events celebrating International Women’s Day are incredibly important, but it’s not lost on me that most of this room is made up of women.
“Women’s issues are everybody’s issues.”
This event took place within a host of events celebrating Women’s History Month, including a spotlight of women in Edinburgh Medical School’s 300-year history on Tuesday 3 March.
Events will continue over the rest of the month, with the annual Higgs Lecture being delivered by Fabiola Gianotti, the former director of CERN, on Monday 23 March.
The Higgs Lecture celebrates the discovery of the Higgs boson particle in 2012, which was predicted by Professor Peter Higgs whilst working at the University of Edinburgh.
Further opportunities to celebrate Women’s History Month will occur on Thursday 19 March with a talk from Dr Hannah Proctor, a Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde.
The talk will explore how feminist activists engaged with psychoanalysis between 1968-1980, exploring themes of political struggle and burnout.
Image by Lilybet Perry for The Student.