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At Centre Pompidou in Paris, in Elles, a women-only exhibit I found this quote from the French artist Michelle Perrot’s “Preface a Une Historie des Femmes, est-elle Possible?”

@ Tracey @Lindse et alia “It is not a matter of establishing some new territory for women, a peaceful reservation where they might desport themselves at ease without fear of contradiction; it is rather a question of changing the direction of the historical gaze, placing the relationship between the sexes at the center of concern.” French artist Michelle Perrot

International Womens Day represents for us what is known as the collective power of women and who we are in our world. What makes us so powerful?

@ Tracey Red your blog, yes it's good. We could get seasick w all these waves.

@Katherine - Wow. I think that quote describes one of the evolutions for me. i think when I was younger the desire for that peaceful reservation was bound up in my fiercer, more furious desire for economic and reproductive rights. But I am so much younger now and am no longer looking for that kind of peace.

@Katherine @Lindsay - I remember an amazing conversation with a group of racially diverse women about what a "safe space" meant to us. Eye-opening. For me "safe space" had always meant that peaceful reservation away from contradiction but for others, that definition meant that white women were trying to create a space where they did not have to confront issues of white privilege. For them, "safe space" was a place where privilege could be named and challenged.

Anybody under 30 care to tell us what you're doing for feminism today?

Tell me more about that evolution because for so many women that I met they have an inner knowing of thier power but thier life challenges, the people in their lives, and the economic and political challenges have so 'beaten' them down that they wonder if they truly are powerful enough to speak up, speak out and then take action to create change, starting with themselves.

Also in Iran, women are not allowed to march: www.hrw.org

From Susan Davis-Ali, President of Leadhership1On behalf of the Millennials at the Women's Center at St. Norbert College, I know that everyday is women's day for them. They carry the torch for feminism in a way that makes me so proud of them!

@Susan Davis-Ali - How can we all help this next generation of women carry this same torch? Thank you for your fabulous work!

@a.jordao If you were to ask one of my daughters (all under 30) what they were doing for feminism, they would ask for a definition of feminism. What is feminism now?

Over 410 events today around the world to celebrate International Women's Day - and it was a privilege to be part of one here in London, on a sunny, blue sky, spring day.

Led by the redoubtable Annie Lennox - truly a woman for our time – and organised by Women of the World, the Women on the Bridge event led us from Borough Market, behind Southwark Cathedral, near where Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims began their journey; and formerly the home of the ‘Winchester Geese’, as Fourteenth Century London women sex workers were known, and the legal London brothels controlled by the Bishop of Winchester.

We continued along the Thames, past the old Clink prison, and the Globe theatre across the Millennium Bridge, white balloons floating across the sky in front of the white dome of St Pauls, past Waterloo Bridge - the only London Bridge built by women, and, they say, the strongest.

School children in purple chanting for peace, 26 organisations, women from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Cameroon, Ireland, Paris, UK, Soroptimists, White Ribbon, IPPF, and other development NGOs, women from trade unions, women engineers and others from the arts calling for peace, for equality of opportunity, for justice.

Their placards and banners proclaimed 'NO women NO peace', 'fill the 3.5m health worker gap', 'equal rights to health, education'.

At the end Annie Lennox spoke briefly, asking 'why has feminism become an 'f word' that we all cringe from…at the end of the day what do we want - equal opportunity'. So simple, so logical, so fair and yet so hard to achieve.

As a result of failing to achieve equal opportunity, we see the realities of young women's lives denied. In developing countries more than 60 million young women aged between 20 and 24, were married before they were 18, most often against their will; 2.5 million adolescent girls have unsafe illegal abortions a year, making up 46 percent of deaths from unsafe illegal abortion each year, and this is not surprising when we consider the impact of high levels of violence and intergenerational sex on young women, their lack of access to the modern contraception they desire, the lack of the right to decide whether or not to have sex or to have children.

Girls make up the majority of those infected with HIV, in the developing world, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa, but again, is this so surprising when we consider that in that region only 19 percent of girls and young women have a correct understanding of HIV and its transmission.

And yet recently, we have seen young people in 18 countries lead the reduction of HIV largely because they were able to access condoms, and the lifesaving information they needed as part of comprehensive sexuality education.

In some countries such education is still seen as 'likely to wake the sleeping baby'- in other words to lead to early sexual activity. There is a body of research that now clearly demonstrates that this is not so, that to argue this is like blaming seat belts for car accidents. In states in India it has been suggested that CSE will corrupt the nation, and ruin the education system. Surely the truth is, as we have seen from studies in Nepal, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, that CSE, when truly comprehensive, teaches about human rights, HIV prevention, and gender equality, replaces ignorance with knowledge, fear with understanding, and enables young people to see each other as equals. Then they too can understand that 'Women's rights are human rights'.

But some have scant respect for human rights, as is obvious every day, so at times we must take another line. In the words of the chair of Women of the World, here in London today, 'A world that is good for women is also good for men' - and of course for their children. Equal opportunity for women and girls is the key to resilient communities, growing national economies and a sustainable planet.

If human rights and social justice cannot convince those opposed to equal opportunity, perhaps economic arguments, a little enlightened self interest and plain common sense can, so that all can finally agree, 'A world that is good for women is a world that is good for all.'

It is 100 years since the first International Women's Day - surely that time has come?

www.ippf.org

@Susan Auer What was the event?

@Verna - is that me you are asking about the evolution? I know that sense of being beaten down you speak of. I feel it often myself. I think that finding a place to be with allies, a place where the weary can reproduce themselves is important. I think that when we know who our allies are and that they are always standing with us even when we cannot see them, we feel more powerful. A place free from "contradiction" does not rejuvenate me the way it used to. It makes me feel sleepy. I am not being prescriptive about this -- this is where I am now. I support women finding the ways that foster strength and voice for them. I think that different things work for different people at different times.

@all, are there only women participating in this discussion? Am I missing comments?

@Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke So far it looks like that, although it is not restricted to women :)

@Julie - Hello! The event was titled The Power of You and delivered by Dr. Verna a year ago ... We followed this fabulous conversation with 4 days of break out sessions on purpose, challange/change, etc. It was a great week, that all started with the life-changer, Dr. Verna.

A poignant blog post about widowhood by Susan Lapinski, former editor of "Working Mother" and "Sesame Street Parents" magazines www.trust.org "Since he's been gone"