International Women`s Day - History
International Women`s Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women`s
groups around the world and is designated in many countries as a national
holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries
and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences,
come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that
represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace
and development. International Women`s Day is the story of ordinary women as
makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to
participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece,
Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during
the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality,
fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women`s suffrage.
The idea of an International Women`s Day first arose at the turn of the
century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and
turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a
brief chronology of the most important events:
1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the
first National Woman`s Day was observed across the United States on 28th
February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month
through 1913.
1910
The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women`s
Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women`s rights
and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was
greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17
countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish
parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.
1911
As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen the previous year,
International Women`s Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in
Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women
and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold
public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and
to an end to discrimination on the job.
Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York
City took the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and
Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation
in the United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster
were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women`s Day.
1913-1914
As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian
women observed their first International Women`s Day on the last Sunday in
February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following
year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity
with their sisters.
1917
With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose
the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and peace". Political
leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway. The
rest is history: Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the
provisional Government granted women the right to vote. 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. The
growing international women`s movement, which has been strengthened by four
global United Nations women`s conferences, has helped make the commemoration
a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women`s rights and
participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly,
International Women`s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for
change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women
who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women`s rights.
The Role of the United Nations
Few causes promoted by the United Nations have generated more intense and
widespread support than the campaign to promote and protect the equal rights
of women. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in
1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a
fundamental human right. Since then, the Organization has helped create a
historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes
and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.
Over the years, United Nations action for the advancement of women has
taken four clear directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilization of
public opinion and international action; training and research, including
the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and direct assistance to
disadvantaged groups. Today a central organizing principle of the work of
the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society`s most
threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the
full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world`s women.
Information courtesy: The United Nations
