THREE special events will celebrate International Women’s Day in Middlesbrough next month.

The events will start on March 8 with a Middlesbrough Libraries presentation of live and pre-recorded screenings from the British Library. Beginning at 5pm Harriet Harman MP, former deputy leader of the Labour party and author of A Woman’s Work will appear at Middlesbrough Central Library via a pre-recorded screening.

She will be in conversation with Joan Bakewell, discussing 100 years of the vote for women, what has been achieved and how much is still to be done.

At 6pm the Bottle of Notes in Centre Square will be illuminated with the colours of International Women’s Day – the same as those used by the Women’s Social and Political Union, which was led by Emmeline Pankhurst.

The colours were also adopted by Unison who sponsor this year’s lighting ceremony. Representatives from the Middlesbrough Labour Party Women’s Forum will join schools and community groups in saying a few words about what International Women’s Day means to them.

Anyone wanting to join in with the service is encouraged to attend.

At 7pm celebrations return to Central Library to hear leading women’s rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst – great-granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst – Jill Liddington and Robert Wainwright discuss the struggle for the vote and ask how far women have come since the suffragettes.

The Bottle of Notes lighting ceremony is free, and tickets for the library presentations are £1.

To reserve a library place call 01642-729002.