100th International Women's Day celebration on the stamp of Faroe Islands

The Post of Faroe Islands has issued a stamp celebrating the centenary of the International Women's Day.

In 1911, the first International Women's Day was celebrated in four countries, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. It was on the 19th March and the demands were female voting rights, improvement of women's working conditions - and rights to be hired as public servants. In the following years the day was celebrated on different dates, but in 1921 they decided on the 8th March. In the twenties and thirties the day was mostly celebrated as a socialist Women's Day, and after World War II it fell more or less into oblivion.

The picture on the stamp depicts the most influential persons in the women's rights movements - Emmeline Pankhurst and Clara Zetkin.

Emmeline Pankhurst is known for her militant methods of struggle, such as interrupting political rallies, smashing windows or hunger strike. She is shown while her arrest at a demonstration at Buckhingham Palace in 1914.

Clara Zetkin, active on the feminist front, became head of the Social Democratic Party's women's office. In 1910 she was elected as chairperson of the International Socialist Women's Association, and it was in this capacity that she, at a woman's Congress in Copenhagen the same year, called for the introduction of the International Women's Day.