Let's hear it for the ladies!

Saturday 8th March is International Women’s Day. While we do not normally have separate records for each gender, some records can only be attempted by the female sex. Here are some of our women-only records:

Largest annual gathering of women
In February or March each year, over one million women gather at the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, for the `Pongala' offering. The women, from all religions and communities in Kerala, gather with their cooking pots to perform a ritual for the health and prosperity of their families. The highest attendance recorded was 1.5 million women in attendance at the festival on 23 February 1997. The ceremonial, which involves cooking rice as an offering to the deity, lasts six hours.

Most prolific mother ever
The greatest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the wife of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707–c.1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia. In 27 confinements she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets.

Most people breast feeding
The most women breast feeding simultaneously was 3,541 at an event organised by Children for Breastfeeding Inc., and the City of Manila in partnership with Nurturers of the Earth Inc., UNICEF and the Department of Health of the Republic of the Philippines at the San Andres Sports Complex and Cultural Center, Malate, Manila, Philippines on 4 May 2006.

Most bikini waves – 4 hours
Lareesa Guttery (Australia) gave 262 clients a bikini wax in 4 hours at the Every Woman's Expo 2004, Burswood Dome, Perth, Western Australia, Australia, on 12 June 2004.

Oldest person to give birth
The oldest mother is Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara (Spain, b. 5 January 1940), who gave birth by caesarean section to twin boys, Christian and Pau, aged 66 years 358 days at the Sant Pau hospital, Barcelona, Spain on 29 December 2006.