Badge collection relating to International Women's Day

International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8th each year. The first International Women's Day was held in 1910, and the day was officially sanctioned by the United Nations in 1975. The first Australian rally was held in the Domain, Sydney, on March 25th 1928. The early European activists organised this day to draw attention to their demands for equality, namely suffrage, better working conditions, and better pay. Today, it has come to be a day for celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, as well as being a call to action for achieving gender equality globally.

The Library has a growing collection of badges related to Australian women that have been donated by a number of Library members and supporters.

The badges in our diverse collection have been generated by campaigns such as that against sexism, sexual harassment, war, nuclear energy and abortion laws. Others promote and celebrate working mothers, peace, International Women's Day and feminist values. Women's groups are well represented, although few political party badges have been collected. We do, however, have a badge from Jessie Street's campaign as the Labor candidate for the seat of Wentworth in 1943.