Make Change on 100th International Women's Day

When International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time in 1911, women could cast ballots in only a handful of nations and not a single country had elected a female head of state. Birth control was universally illegal, with few exceptions. While Marie Curie had won her Nobel Prize a few years earlier, women across the world were prohibited from entering universities or, if they did graduate, were denied the right to practice their profession.

What a world of difference a hundred years makes. Thanks to social change actions and actors, women in many parts of the world can vote as well as run for office and win or lose based on merit, an important distinction. Women are doctors, lawyers, inventors, scientists, and engineers at the top of their fields. It’s a remarkable testament to the combined power of empathy, education, and activist elbow grease that so much has been won for women during just one century.

But, as far as we’ve come, the battle for full equality for all women and men is far from over. In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting actions across the site that have the potential to be just as revolutionary for women and girls as those campaigns waged by the generations before us (just look for the logo!). Start by checking out the petitions below, launched by major nonprofit players in the fight for gender equity, and sign on to make modern day history. In a hundred years, someone will surely write, “it’s a tremendous testament to empathy, education, activist elbow grease, and the internet that so much has been won.”

Join the Center for Reproductive Rights in telling Congress that women and children are not political pawns. Congress claims that budget cuts are necessary to stem the effects of the recent recession. Yet, eliminating family planning funds, cutting WIC programs that provide healthy food for young children, and slashing Head Start programs are concerted attacks on poor women, pregnant women, and children designed to score political points. The rights and well being of American women and children are not chips to be traded away.

Invest in girls from around the globe. Over 600 million young women live in the world today, more than at any other time in history. Many are living in poverty, hungry, and in danger of dying in childbirth or of AIDS. But these young women are far more than a set of potential problems. In fact, these young women -- perhaps the largest untapped talent pool in history -- can make the solutions for not only themselves, but their countries and the world, if given a chance to learn and grow. The United Nations Foundations asks you to support education, skill-building, and access to health care for this promising generation of young women.

Insist Afghan women have a say in the future of their country. For years, Afghan women have been assured that freedom and an equal stake in their homeland would come at the end of years of war and destruction. Yet critical peace negotiations are now occurring, and women have been denied a seat at the table. Join with Women for Women International and women from all over the world to ask Hillary Clinton to intervene and insist women have the opportunity to participate in the shaping of their nation.

Tell Congress women deserve equal pay. American women earn 60% of college degrees in the United States yet, one year after graduating, earn only 80% as much as their male colleagues. Women still make, on average,  77 cents to the male dollar -- and our progress has stagnated. While the President signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, we lack the enforcement measures needed to make it a reality. In this economic climate, this is no longer just about fairness, it’s about survival. Support the American Association of University Women in telling Congress to take Equal Pay seriously.

Take the pledge: "I like sex but I’m not ready for a baby." Not hot: more than half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Hot: knowing your birth control method of choice is between you and accidental parenthood. If you’re not actively planning not to get pregnant, chances are, you will. Sign the pledge to use birth control and then check out Bedsider, a new support tool dedicated to helping women find the birth control method that’s right for them and learning to use it consistently and correctly.