To celebrate International Women’s Day on Saturday 8 March 2014 more than 400 events took place around the UK, with this year’s theme being ‘inspiring change’.

Kirsty Weakley takes a look at how some charities decided to mark the day.

1. Care International

Dr Helen Pankhurst and her daughter Laura, who are descendents of Emmeline Pankhurst, launched Care International UK’s Walk in Her Shoes campaign with a march through London on International Women’s day.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of women and girls in the developing world who are held back by the need to walk several miles every day to collect water, and participants will walk 10,000 steps a day for week in March to raise money for the charity.

They were joined by the Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening; broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, and feminist activists Caroline Criado-Perez, Laura Bates (Everyday Sexism), Lucy-Anne Holmes (No More Page 3), as well as Care International supporters.

Helen Pankhurst said: “The suffragettes of old would say that the vote was only ever the beginning. If they were alive today, they would be outraged by the myriad of injustice faced by women and girls around the world.

"Their job is not yet done, and that's why my daughter and I are supporting Care's Walk In Her Shoes Campaign, which lets us walk in solidarity with the millions of women and girls in developing countries who walk miles every day collecting water for their families. These gruelling trips mean they often don't have time to go to school or make a living, so they are unable to reach their full potential.”

View a slideshow of photos from the march below:

 

2. Plan UK

Plan UK chose to focus on the role of grandmothers in supporting young mothers in their communities, highlighting a project in Benin where a group of grandmothers are supported to provide nutritional advice and cooking lessons for young mothers.

The charity urged supporters to hold a Plan Bake-Off on Friday 7 March and raise money by selling cakes to colleagues.

3. Womankind Worldwide

International Women’s Day coincided with Womankind Worldwide’s 25th anniversary, and the charity has put together an interactive map highlighting its acheivements.

It also teamed up the publishers Bloomsbury to come up with a book list and encouraged its supporters to host a book group to raise money on 8 March.

4. Rosa the UK Fund for Women and Girls

This year 25 women from the Centrica Women’s Network are undertaking a five-day Arctic trek over International Women’s day to raise money for the charity.

5. Concern Worldwide

Concern Worldwide produced a video a looking at the work it is doing with women in Zambia for this year’s International Women’s Day. It focuses on four stories of women and men benefitting from its work providing support and education to people in areas such as agriculture, leadership skills and gender awareness.

 

6. Refuge

The eighth annual City of London International Women’s Day Breakfast was held on 7 March and was this year raising money for domestic abuse charity Refuge. It was hosted by British journalist, newsreader and television presenter, Fiona Bruce, who also recieved a Freedom of the City award for her work with Refuge.

7. VSO

Through its Women in Power campaign VSO is urging world leaders to commit to a target for gender equality when they decide on the post-2015 development framework that will replace the Millenium Development Goals. And to coincide with International Women’s day it launched an online petition asking members of the public to share why they support Women in Power.