St Jude’s girls get life lessons

In light of this year’s IWD theme “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures”, the Scotiabank Women’s Network (SWN) observed this occasion in two ways: by celebrating the advancement of women in its boardroom and by hosting a half-day Business Etiquette Seminar for the girls of St Jude’s Home in Belmont on March 10. The seminar addressed topics such as resume writing, business communication and dressing for success, skill-sets that will allow the girls, aged 15-18 years old, to succeed as they embark on their journey into the working world.

The SWN Steering Committee also presented two young women at the home with a scholarship of $2,500 each to further their studies.

Speaking about their choice of the home, SWN co-chairperson Katishe Serrette, said they were seeking to give a more personal touch to their effort this year.

“Over the past few years, the Scotiabank Women’s Network has made donations to charitable organisations that focus on women and children in our society. Our aim this year was to make our outreach efforts more personal and as such, in addition to making financial donations, we decided to devote some of our time to helping these young women develop their business etiquette skills,” Serrette told Sunday Newsday.

“We were really pleased with the lively participation of these girls from the St Jude’s home and honoured that the girls requested that we come back soon to assist them in developing skills in other areas.”

The SWN was formed as a result of the bank’s “Advancement of Women Initiative”, which exists throughout the Scotiabank group. The bank’s vision is to be the recognised leader in advancement of women causes in all countries where it operates. This vision, SWN members said, is an extension of the bank’s commitment to being a global employer of choice – creating opportunities that enable all Scotiabank employees, regardless of their gender, to achieve their full potential.

SWN also paid tribute to the positive strides made in the advancement of women within Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago Limited (SBTT), which can be seen by the significant growth in the number of female representation at the local bank’s executive and board levels. With three female Directors, Gisele del V Marfleet, Roxanne De Freitas and Wendy-Fae Thompson, women now comprise 33 percent of the current board membership. Between 2010 and 2011, a growth in female executives now shows that six women hold key executive positions: Heidi Bason (GM – Marketing), Karrian Hepburn (GM - Scotia Investments), Belinda James (GM - Compliance and Legal Services), Faziah Khan (Centre Director - Wealth Management, Scotia Private Client Group), Gayle Pazos (GM - Corporate Banking Centre) and Carlene Seudat (GM - Credit Risk Management).

How did International Women’s Day (IWD) start? Originally called International Working Women’s Day, it is now observed on March 8 every year in a variety of ways in different regions. The first National Women’s Day was observed on February 28, 1909, in the United States, following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. In August 1910, an International Women’s Conference was organised to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen. Inspired in part by the American socialists, German socialist Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual “International Woman’s Day” (singular) and was seconded by communist Clara Zetkin, although no date was specified at that conference. Delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including suffrage, for women.

Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily INK”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe”o”EasternEurope”Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc. In many regions, the day eventually lost its political flavour and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

On March 18, 1911, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations. In Vienna, women paraded on the Ringstrasse and carried banners honouring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Women demanded that they be given the right to vote and to hold public office, and also protested against employment sex discrimination. Americans continued to celebrate National Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February.In 1913 Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February (by the Julian calendar then used in Russia). In 1917, demonstrations marking International Women’s Day took place in Saint Petersburg on the last Sunday in February (which fell on March 8 on the Gregorian calendar). Established as an official holiday in the Soviet Union, IWD, predominantly celebrated in communist and socialist countries, remained a working day until May 8, 1965, when it was then declared a non-working day in the USSR by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women’s Day. The day is an official holiday in many eastern countries; in others it is not a public holiday but is widely observed nonetheless.

In the West, International Women’s Day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace.

The UN theme for the 101 anniversary of International Women’s Day 2012 is “Empower Women – End Hunger and Poverty”. In many countries, International Women’s Day is an occasion to honour and praise women for their accomplishments. Countless political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events are scheduled around the globe, to celebrate the great achievements made by women and to remind us of the barriers and injustices still faced by them.

“The day is truly international, which explains why it is celebrated so differently throughout the world,” says University of Toronto history professor Joan Simalchik.

“We live in a globalised world but we still have our national and cultural traditions. This day has a meaning that may be portrayed differently in other countries but it still is there, it is a significant, recognised day. When you look at other days, such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, it tends to look at women in a one-dimensional way. But Women’s Day helps to celebrate women in their diversity and the diversity of their lives.”

There were various activities across Toronto on IWD, March 8, 2012. At the Humber Bay Arch Bridge, there was more than a connection between land surfaces. There was a symbolic connection that spans the continents, as a group assembled from 5.30 pm to 7 pm on the bridge, with candles being lit in honour of women who continue to suffer in conflict areas. People around the globe also joined in solidarity on that Thursday, to mark International Women’s Day, many of them uniting on bridges to call for peace, equality and an end to violence against women in war-torn countries.

The events were part of the “Join Me on the Bridge” campaign, the largest women’s rights campaign in the world, started in 2010 when women from the war-torn countries of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo gathered on a bridge that connected their countries, demonstrating they could build bridges of peace and hope for the future.

Their assembly sparked a global movement, which included Afghanistan and Iraq, where women risk personal safety to stand up for peace and equality. Last year, more than 75,000 people participated in 474 international events, including Toronto.