Bernadette Horton

International Women’s Day 2015 is a celebration of strong, inspiring, talented and downright hardy Welsh women here in Wales.

There is a warrior-like spirit among the sisters of Wales that has produced singers, actors, doctors, writers, musicians, but also ordinary working-class women — miners’ wives, carers, community leaders who are the real backbone of our great nation.

While many newspapers will be full of the celebrity women who adorn their covers weekly on IWD, here in Wales we will celebrate the working-class women who keep this country running, the real heroes doing the jobs no-one else wants to do — caring for disabled relatives, nursing elderly people through dementia, those working in zero-hours contract jobs to make ends meet.

On top of the mundane jobs that the Con-Dem government takes for granted, Welsh women are very active and vocal in their communities.

Fighting to save local community facilities, volunteering at sports clubs, running foodbanks or school breakfast clubs. This is where you will find inspirational, intelligent, highly articulate women, leaders of their communities.

This is why I am very proud to live, work and write in Wales, and hopefully one day be honoured to represent us all in Parliament.

I wish women everywhere, but especially in Wales, a very happy IWD.

Bernadette Horton blogs at www.bernadettehorton.co.uk.

Roz Hardie

My great-grandmother, Margaret Birnie, whose family were Dundee millworkers, was involved with Suffragette protests in the early 20th century.

For me International Women’s Day is a time to look back at our history and recognise the millions of anonymous women in history who have fought for women’s rights, to reflect on the progress we have made and the debt we owe them.

I recently discovered that Louise Michel, former Paris Communard and teacher, once lived quite near my home. I plan to write to English Heritage recommending a blue plaque as a personal IWD tribute.

On March 8 as part of my work at Object I will be walking with Helen Pankhurst to commemorate the Suffragettes and unite with women worldwide who do not enjoy basic freedoms and later in the day I am speaking at a Women of the World conference in Cambridge on body image.

Roz Hardie is chief executive officer of Object. Object challenges “sex object culture” — the sexual objectification of women through lads’ mags, lap dancing clubs or sexist advertising.

Charlotte Hughes

International Women’s Day means such a lot to me. It’s a day that reminds us that we have a voice and should continue to use it.

I shall be celebrating IWD a bit early on the Thursday which is the day of my regular demonstrations outside Ashton under Lyne jobcentre. We campaign every week against the evil sanctioning system and the benefit reforms.

We have been there every week since August and, as well as helping others, it empowers us as women.

We stand in our own power despite opposition to us being there. Women really have a voice and we really need to use it.

Charlotte Hughes blogs at thepoorsideoflife.wordpress.com.

Jennifer McCarey

I am the chair of Glasgow Trades Council and have been for the last five years. I am also a full-time officer with Unison and an active trade unionist for about 30 years.

International Women’s Day means a lot to me because one of the first demonstrations I attended was on or around IWD in 1983, with my mum at Faslane nuclear base on the Clyde.

The experience of being at a woman’s protest with all generations was inspiring and we closed the base that day.

The legacy of the work done and the progress made by the women of previous generations is always evident in the trade union movement, those who fought and bargained for workplace policies and equal pay that I see members benefit from, that improve women’s and their families’ lives.

Women like Agnes Maclean, union convener at Rolls-Royce in Hillington, Renfrewshire, who fought and striked in 1943 and in 1968 for equal pay.

Or the classroom assistants in Dumfries and Galloway who changed case law on the right to compare themselves to male manual workers only a few years ago. We all walk in the shadow of heroes in the trade union movement, none more so than the women who came before and challenged the status quo.

This year I shall be celebrating with my cycling sisters and Glasgow Women’s Library.

I cycle with a socialist cycling club that Glasgow trades council runs, the Glasgow Clarion Club, and with a women’s club, Glasgow Belles on Bikes.

This year the Belles will be joining in the March of Women re-enacting a Suffragette march that took place in 1915.

For more information on the Glasgow Women’s Library visit womenslibrary.org.uk/tag/march-of-women.

Beti B

International Women’s Day is a day where women’s achievements and contributions to society are celebrated, especially because these are often unrecognised, underpaid or totally unpaid, overlooked and unvalued.

It is a reminder of how far we have come, but also how long we still have got to go to fully be liberated from male domination and be respected as equals.

It is also a day where we remember our sisters who are not here with us due to male violence and also highlight the extent to which women worldwide are discriminated against and subjected to male violence — one in three women worldwide will experience male violence in their lifetime — and so IWD is an opportunity to highlight this global injustice and where women come together, like in the Million Women Rise march taking place today, calling for an end to male violence against women.

I also think that IWD could be seen as sisterhood day, as I see women appreciating, celebrating and encouraging one another.

Beti B is campaigns officer for Object. For more information on Million Women Rise visit www.millionwomenrise.com.

Helen Pankhurst

International Women’s Day is important to me personally as a day to take stock in terms of women’s rights.

It is in part a day to look back, including by honouring my ancestors, leaders of the Suffragette movement.

This is particularly important in 2015, a few months before the general elections.

It is also a day to galvanise around all the innumerable areas of inequality that remain both in Britain and internationally, and a day to celebrate and have fun.

I’d encourage readers to join us on the day, to celebrate all that has been achieved towards gender equality while calling out for action on the great deal of work that remains to be done.

Dr Helen Pankhurst is great-granddaughter of Suffragette Emmeline. Join CARE International’s Walk In Her Shoes march led by Helen and Laura Pankhurst on Sunday March 8 starting at The Scoop (next to City Hall), London SE1 2RL at 10am. The march will end at the Women of the World festival at the Southbank Centre. For more information visit www.walkinhershoes.org.uk/IWD.