International Women’s Day, like any event that promotes positive discrimination, is accompanied by its fair share of negative remarks.

The earliest Women’s Days were held in the first decade of 20th century. This was before women had the vote, before women could legally terminate a pregnancy. In the UK, it was only ten years since a married woman could legally own her own property, rather than be property herself. Marie Curie was yet to become the first woman to win the Nobel Prize.

More than a century later and it’s tempting to see International Women’s Day as redundant, a celebratory event at best. Why do we need the event at all? The causes that triggered those first campaigns have been fought and won. Women in today’s society have all the equality they could ever need, right? Wrong.

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Shape Created with Sketch. Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Show all 22 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you 1/22 Katharine Hepburn “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone” Getty Images 2/22 Betty Friedan “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor” Getty Images 3/22 Maya Angelou “I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be…” Getty Images 4/22 Emmeline Pankhurst “I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote” Creative Commons 5/22 Patricia Arquette "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America." AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images 6/22 Nawal El Saadawi “They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous” Getty Images 7/22 Margaret Fuller "It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy" Creative Commons 8/22 Germaine Greer “All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women” Getty Images 9/22 Naomi Wolf “A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience” Getty Images 10/22 Rebecca West "I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat" Creative Commons 11/22 Margaret Atwood “Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up” Getty Images 12/22 Susan B. Anthony "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand" Creative Commons 13/22 Sylvia Plath "Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both" Creative Commons 14/22 Hillary Clinton "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life" Getty Images 15/22 Lena Dunham "The idea of being a feminist—so many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sex—but what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue" Getty Images 16/22 Bette Davis “When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch” Creative Commons 17/22 Jane Austen “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives” Creative Commons 18/22 Gloria Steinem “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” Getty Images 19/22 Anais Nin “I hate men who are afraid of women's strength” Creative Commons 20/22 Elizabeth Warren “I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever” Getty Images 21/22 Malala Yousafzai “In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … Is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education” Getty Images 22/22 Virginia Woolf "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world" Getty Images 1/22 Katharine Hepburn “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone” Getty Images 2/22 Betty Friedan “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor” Getty Images 3/22 Maya Angelou “I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be…” Getty Images 4/22 Emmeline Pankhurst “I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote” Creative Commons 5/22 Patricia Arquette "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America." AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images 6/22 Nawal El Saadawi “They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous” Getty Images 7/22 Margaret Fuller "It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy" Creative Commons 8/22 Germaine Greer “All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women” Getty Images 9/22 Naomi Wolf “A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience” Getty Images 10/22 Rebecca West "I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat" Creative Commons 11/22 Margaret Atwood “Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up” Getty Images 12/22 Susan B. Anthony "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand" Creative Commons 13/22 Sylvia Plath "Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both" Creative Commons 14/22 Hillary Clinton "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life" Getty Images 15/22 Lena Dunham "The idea of being a feminist—so many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sex—but what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue" Getty Images 16/22 Bette Davis “When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch” Creative Commons 17/22 Jane Austen “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives” Creative Commons 18/22 Gloria Steinem “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” Getty Images 19/22 Anais Nin “I hate men who are afraid of women's strength” Creative Commons 20/22 Elizabeth Warren “I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever” Getty Images 21/22 Malala Yousafzai “In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … Is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education” Getty Images 22/22 Virginia Woolf "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world" Getty Images

International Women’s Day is still needed to motivate change, at home and abroad. Some of these statistics put into sharp relief just how far we still have to go.

Violence

Globally, about one in three women will be beaten or raped during their lifetime. About 44 per cent of all UK women have experienced either physical or sexual violence since they were 15-years-old. Britain ranks among the worst countries in Europe when it comes to women being violently abused.

On average, 30% of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by their partner.

38 per cent of all murders of women worldwide are committed by a woman's intimate partner.

A UN report said 99.3% of women and girls in Egypt had been subjected to sexual harassment.

Female Genital Mutilation

This is where girls have either all or part of their clitoris and inner and outer labia sliced off without anaesthesia, and sometimes have part of their vaginas sewn up too.

Over 130 million women living in the world today have undergone Female Genital Mutilation.

There as as many as 24,000 girls are at risk of cutting in the UK.

In one Birmingham hospital as many as 40 to 50 women every month are treated after undergoing female genital mutilation.

Marriage

Around 14 million girls, some as young as eight years old, will be married in 2014.

An estimated 1.2m children are trafficked into slavery each year; 80 per cent are girls.

In 10 countries around the world women are legally bound to obey their husbands

Only 76 countries have legislation that specifically addresses domestic violence – and just 57 of them include sexual abuse.

Working rights

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In the UK, the gender pay gap stands at 15%, with women on average earning £5,000 less a year than their male colleagues. The disparity is even greater in part time jobs, going up to 35 per cent.

Globally only a 24 per cent of senior management roles are now filled by women.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission estimates it will take 70 years at the current rate of progress to see an equal number of female and male directors of FTSE 100 companies.

This hurts everyone. The gender gap in certain industries is even more apparent and damaging. Zemach Getahun estimates that closing the gender gap in agriculture could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17 per cent.

If the skills and qualifications of women who are currently out of work in the UK were fully utilised, the UK could deliver economic benefits of £15 to £21 billion pounds per year – more than double the value of all our annual exports to China.