International Women's Day is tomorrow. But what does it mean for young Irish women? Do they think it's still apt, asks Róisín Ingle.

There is no shortage of international causes to spark righteous feminist outrage: child prostitution in South Asia; women being stoned to death under sharia law in Africa; the gap between the salaries of men and those of women all over the world. And yet International Women's Day, tomorrow, consistently fails to fire the imagination of younger women amid a perception that most of the major feminist battles of recent decades have been won.

"I think there is serious apathy among women of my generation." Eighteen-year-old Dublin student Zoe Trevaskis will represent the voice of young people at an International Women's Day conference hosted by the National Women's Council in Dublin tomorrow. "Women my age are inclined to think because society is more equal than it used to be in our mother's day that everything is fine. But 'more equal' isn't good enough. We have to keep marching on until we have full equality."

It's the apathy described by Trevaskis which partly prompted the "Imagining Ourselves" project which was launched last year by Harvard academic Paula Goldman and the International Museum of Women in New York. As part of the project, 100 million women between the ages of 20 and 40 around the world were asked to consider "what defines your generation?" Thousands of women, including best-selling author Zadie Smith and Queen Rania of Jordan, answered this question through essays, poetry, music and art.

THE RESULTS WILL be seen and heard in an online multimedia exhibition that runs from tomorrow until June. According to patron Mary Robinson, the project creates "a strong platform for young women's voices, uniting young women in a global dialogue around issues that impact their world". Despite the former president's involvement, organisers say not even one of the submissions came from Ireland.

So what does define the new generation of Irish women? And does International Women's Day really mean anything to them? Although she is still a teenager, Trevaskis says the main issue that consumes her - and she thinks some of her peers also - centres around when is the right time to start a family and how that will impact on her career.

"I know it sounds silly to be thinking about this at my age but I do think a lot about whether I will start a family in my 20s or will I build my career first. Having children means you might not go as far as possible in your career; it is more difficult to get to the very top of an organisation. I think about things like whether my husband will stay at home looking after the children and about whether I would be happy with that," she says.

Despite being active in youth participation groups such as Dáil na nÓg, she says that had she not been asked to speak at the National Women's Council of Ireland conference tomorrow, she would probably not know about International Women's Day. "More of a fuss should be made of the day," she says. "There could be more celebrations, DJs could call it out on the radio. We should celebrate being women more and show more solidarity."

Caroline Hobson, 25, a civil servant from Belfast, has never heard of International Women's Day, which has been celebrated around the world since 1911."What is it for exactly?" she muses. As for what defines her generation, she says it's all about independence.

"This generation knows that it is possible to have the career and to have the family, and we are not as reliant on men. We get more respect in the workplace as well," she says. When it comes to romance, "girls are now as bad as men, not afraid to go out and get what they want sexually the way men always have. There are still some traditionalists like me who don't go down that route. My generation are not afraid to express our feelings and I think this has led to the high divorce rates and increasing numbers of single-parent families."

ACCORDING TO TEENAGER Alison Curran from Carlow, the answer to the question of what defines her generation of women can be summed up in one word: "pressure". "We have to achieve academically and then we have to embark on high-powered careers, at the same time we have to get married and fit the motherly image that's expected of us. Women are now blazing a trail and raising the bar for the rest of us which is wonderful, but not everyone can achieve that and we shouldn't all be expected to," she says. International Women's Day is important, she adds, "even if awareness of it isn't very high among my generation".

Anna Ross, author of The Women's Way to Wealth, says it's only natural that younger women don't see the relevance of International Women's Day. "I know myself it was all a bit irrelevant when I was younger and it's only when women start to hit barriers, which is usually around having children, that these issues come to the forefront for them," she says. "First she thinks it's a personal problem. Then through talking to others she realises that whatever she is experiencing - lack of decent childcare, a male-dominated work environment, sexual harassment - is something more widespread than just her as an individual. That's when she starts to become more involved."

See the "Imagining Ourselves" project on www.imow.org