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.
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.
