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International
Women's Day |
International
Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's
groups around the world. This date is also commemorated
at the United Nations 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 28 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.
Source : United
Nations document |
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