Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the inspirational women we know and to recognise that we still have a long way to go to achieve equality for half the population in almost every aspect of our national and international life.

This year’s theme is For ALL women and girls: Rights, Equality, Empowerment. With women’s rights under threat across the world from Afghanistan to the USA, that could not be more appropriate.

When I think of inspirational women, if I didn’t mention my sister, Honor, who celebrates her 50th birthday this week, she would kill me. You can read the soppy post I wrote about her on my own blog here.   She has always been one to demolish barriers, achieve the seemingly impossible and always make us laugh while she’s doing it.

My mother was the one who inspired all of us. I grew up in the 70s, when women often lost their jobs, even in the Civil Service, when they got married, and almost certainly when they got pregnant. My mum ran her own business in Inverness and was a great role model of achievement and independence.

In the Lib Dems, I am surrounded by brilliant women who inspire me every day. If I started to list then all, I’d still be here next International Women’s Day. This year, though, we can celebrate our largest ever contingent of women MPs, 44% of our parliamentary party.  We should also celebrate the huge contingent of women campaigners, agents and organisers who built their campaigns.

How many can you spot in this official Commons photograph?

Today is #InternationalWomensDay and I am so lucky to be one of the women who gets to call the @HouseofCommons my office#IWD2025 #AccelerateAction pic.twitter.com/WDAUqJ4YWa

— Alison Bennett (@AlisonEBennett) March 8, 2025

Here’s Susan Murray, our MP for Mid Dunbartonshire:

Happy International Women’s Day pic.twitter.com/etUmUvJFfU

— Susan Murray MP 🔶 (@Susan4_ED) March 8, 2025

Lib Dem Women,  the party’s official organisation representing women, say, on Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Liberal Democrat Women (@libdemwomen)

Ed Davey said on Twitter:

On International Women’s Day, we honour the incredible contributions of women everywhere- those who have broken barriers, stood up for what’s right, and made life better for so many. But the fight for a fairer and more equal society isn’t over, and we’ll keep pushing for change.

Today we celebrate all the fabulous Lib Dem women across the country, elected or not, whose work does so much to contribute to the party’s success.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social