In March 1911, IWD was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In Vienna women paraded and demanded to be given the right to vote and to hold public office; they also protested against employment discrimination.

In 1913 Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day and in 1917 demonstrations marking International Women’s Day in Saint Petersburg initiated what then became the February Revolution.

From the official adoption in Russia the holiday was predominantly celebrated in communist and socialist countries. 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.

Today, International Women’s Day marks a moment of reflection on the hardship women continue to endure; but also a chance to celebrate the improvements, the positive changes we witness in woman’s relevance and role in society. On this line, I would like to cast a festive light on the day, and offer some examples of woman’s roles we might not be familiar with.

Deep in south-west Chine lies Lugu Lake, there is a place known as the Kingdom of Women. There you can find the 40.000-strong Mosuo, one of the world’s last matriarchal societies. As there is no word for ‘father’ or ‘husband’, Mosuo women do not marry. They take lovers, and invite them for secret evening. In the community property is handed down through the female line, and there is no stigma in not knowing who a child’s father is.

The men of the Aka people in Africa Congo Basin have been described as the ‘best dads in the world.’ They play with their children five time more than men in other societies, and cook while women hunt. Most staggering of all, Aka fathers offer their nipples as pacifiers to their babies when mum is not around.

A tradition that is vanishing but is interesting to notice is the ‘sworn virgins’ of Albania. In the remote mountain villages of northern Albania the head of the household used to be appointed. When the community had no male heir, one daughter took a vow of chastity and lived her life as a man. These women cut their hair, wore baggy men’s clothes and developed baritone voices before taking on jobs as shepherds. The system  has endured for 200 years, and permitted women to escape a system of female subordination not yet eradicated; however, today the ‘sworn virgins’ are vanishing with most of them over 60 years old.

Finally, in Iceland, a law was passed in 2010 which outlaw strip clubs. The decision states that men will have to get used to the idea that women are not for sale. What is more, the country is lead by Johanna Sigurdardottir, the first openly lesbian head of state, who is helped in her job by a parliament in which 40% of the seats are covered by ladies.