The idea of an International Women’s Day first arose at the turn of the century, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:

•1909 – First National Women’s Day – United States – 28 February.

•1910 – Women’s Day established during a meeting in Copenhagen – no fixed date was set.

•1911 – International Women’s day marked for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland – 19 March. This date was selected by German women because on this date in 1848 the Prussian king had promised the vote for women.

• 1913 - International Women’s Day first observed in Russia – last Sunday of February.

• 1914 - Women in Europe held rallies either to protest World War I or to express solidarity with their Russian sisters – on or around 8 March.

• 1917 – Russian women went on strike for “bread and peace” – last Sunday in February. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar, then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.

Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike.

In Malta

During 2004, 50.4 per cent of the Maltese population were females. Population forecasts for both sexes show an increase in the number of people aged 60 years and over, while the number of people aged under 60 is decreasing, with an especially sharp decline for those people under the age of 40. Although on the whole the percentage of women is greater than that of men, this is not apparent until age 60, when the number of women overtakes that of men quite significantly. In fact, this is confirmed when one looks at life expectancy – the life expectation for women has been higher than that of men for over 100 years.

The number of female members in sports organisations has been growing steadily over the past four years, displaying a percentage increase of 43.1 per cent. It is important to note that these members do not necessarily represent a total number of individual persons – it is possible that the same person was a member of many different organisations.

During 2004, most women attended sports centres (41.5 per cent), followed by gyms (17.6 per cent) and diving (8.3 per cent). The least popular sports with women were shooting and regatta. The largest percentage of women who were members of a sports organisation in 2004 were those aged between 20 and 24, followed by those aged 15 to 19. Membership of a sports organisation was least common with women over the age of 40.

A total of 156 females were employed by sports organisations in the year 2004, of which 52 worked on a full-time basis. Nearly half of these worked in a training capacity.

The number of females participating in some form of dance has also been on the rise – increasing from 1,928 in 2001 to 2,905 in 2004 – an increase of 50.7 per cent. In 2004, the number of females participating in dance was over 16 times the number of male participants. Most of these dancers were aged between five and 14. The most popular form of dance among females was classical ballet with 1,529 participants, followed by jazz and modern dance with 882 and 291 participants respectively. Spanish and Latin American dancing also proved popular, while the least popular forms of dance amongst females were salsa and Argentine tango. A total of 1,301 females took dance exams in the year 2004.

According to the Lifestyle Survey carried out in June-July 2003, 32,000 women over the age of 17 said that they were smokers. The majority said that they smoked between one and 10 a day (56.8 per cent), followed by 32.1 per cent who smoked 11 to 20 a day. Also in the same survey, it was found that 37,450 women aged 18 and over – 25 per cent of the sample taken – regularly consumed alcohol

Book-reading was found to be the most popular hobby, with 51.5 per cent of the female population aged 18 and over enjoying this. 37.2 per cent cited home decoration as one of their hobbies, with a further 26.7 per cent saying they regularly sew or knit, and 25.2 per cent saying gardening. The least popular hobbies with women were gambling (0.7 per cent) and playing a musical instrument (2.5 per cent).

When asked about exercising habits, 61.7 per cent of women said that they walked regularly, 23.3 per cent swam regularly, and 13.3 per cent exercised at home. An interesting point to note is that swimming has a relatively high percentage due to the fact this survey was carried out in the summer months. Women spent, on average, 2.2 hours per week walking, 1.8 hours swimming, and 1.3 hours exercising at home. These values are relatively low when one considers that men spent an average of 2.3 hours, 2.5 hours and 1.7 hours respectively doing the same activities.

The average weight of women over the age of 17 was found to be 65.8 kg. It can be observed that this average weight starts off at its lowest value (55.6 kg) in women aged 18 to 24, and increases gradually with each age group.