ANNE McVicker has spent over 30 years of her life working to improve women's lives and addressing inequalities that affect them in their homes or work.
A well-known and respected feminist in the north, she is one of the driving forces behind this year's International Women's Day (IWD) festival.
While the festival runs for nearly two weeks in Belfast and throughout the north, Thursday March 8 is the day when women's groups throughout the world will focus on women's achievements while highlighting fights for equalities which still need to be won. On Thursday morning ‘I am Woman: Hear Me Roar’, a new report on domestic violence compiled by Women’s Aid Federation NI, will be launched in Stormont's Long Gallery.
As north Belfast woman Anne explains, this year is special in women’s history as it’s the 100th anniversary of women achieving partial suffrage after a decades-long concerted, often turbulent, campaign to win the vote in the UK.
"2018 marks the 100th anniversary of partial suffrage and we want to make every one aware about that," says Anne, chairwoman of women's campaign group Reclaim The Agenda and chief executive of the Women's Resource and Development Agency (WRDA).
"When you look back in history, it's pioneering women like Emmeline Pankhurst who did things that were very unpopular to win the vote. IWD is about celebrating successes and about keeping your eye on what is happening internationally in global sisterhood. We have come a long way with the Sex Discrimination Act and Equal Pay act but there is still a huge gender pay gap.
"Our theme is No Woman Left Behind and even though we have moved on considerably since 100 years ago, there are still women left behind in terms of domestic violence and sexual abuse and migrant women. We can’t claim success whenever there are women who aren’t there yet.
"It’s all about women reaching out and taking the hand of the next woman instead of thinking of solo and forging on alone.”
To mark women's advancement, Reclaim the Agenda has compiled, with funding from the Heritage Lottery fund, a website and booklet called A Century of Women, focussing on women from each decade from 1900 to 2000.
Feminist historian and academics Dr Margaret Ward and Dr Myrtle Hill and women's rights activist Lynda Walker have worked on the resource, which was launched last week at the Black Box, Belfast.
One of nine children from the Clifftonvale Road area, Anne turned her back on working as a solicitor after she studied law in Manchester.
"I came back in 1984 and really wanted to get involved with people and not just sit in a solicitors office doing conveyancing," says Anne.
She began to work as a tenant’s liaison officer in the lower Shankill and gradually became involved in helping women organise to improve local housing conditions, eventually founding and running Shankill Women's Centre for years. She also founded Women'sTEC in north Belfast's Duncairn Gardens, which provides work-skills training for women in non-traditional roles such as plumbing and bricklaying.
Anne will be one of the expected several thousands taking part in the IWD's day rally this Saturday in Belfast city centre, which will be attended by members of women’s organisations, trade unions and pressure groups.
Anne believes it's important that younger women don't forget how far women have come in terms of equality of treatment and opportunity.
"I have two daughters and two sons and my daughters' attitude is 'What’s the issue? We’ve got equality'. I think it only hits home when you’ve got children yourself and you realise that things are not equal."
FREE IWD EVENTS
:: The 2018 International Women's Day Rally will take place at Writers Square, Belfast on Saturday March 10, 11am-1pm. The Belfast Ukulele Orchestra, three female Roller Derby teams and representatives of Women and State Pension Inequality will be joining other groups on the march.
:: Claire Bailey MLA will host the I Am Woman; Hear Me Roar event in Stormont's Long Gallery on Thursday March 8 from 10.30am-12.30pm, focussing on women's experiences of domestic violence.
:: Also on Thursday, Falls Women's Centre will host a Celebrating Women's Achievements event at An Chulturlann, Falls Road, 11am-1pm. The event will bring together women from Falls, Shankill and Greenway Women's Centres.
:: The Resilience of Women is the theme of an evening talk organised by the Belle of Mid-Ulster for Thursday March 8 at the Seamus Heaney HomPlace in Bellaghy, 7pm. There will be talks from three resilient women, including Ailis Corey, a two-time blood cancer survivor and a stem-cell transplant recipient.
:: For more information about this year’s IWD across Northern Ireland go to the International Women’s Day Northern Ireland and Reclaim the Agenda Facebook pages.
