The History of International Women’s Day
The history of
international women’s day is simultaneous with the history of socio, politico
struggle for equality for rights and better living condition of women.
Choosing of 8th March
as the international women day is due to struggle of women workers Cotton
textile factory in 1857 in New York City.
Hard and inhumane working condition and low wages of women workers who
had entered the labour market along with men late 19th and early 20th centuries
forced them to protest and launch organized and unorganized class struggle
against this injustice.
In this day women
workers of a textile factory Cotton launched a strike and it remained as a
memory for textile workers while still dissatisfaction on these unacceptable
conditions was going on.
On 8th March 1908 after
over 50 years, the women workers of a cotton spinning factory commemorating the
memory of this day, organized a strike due to discrimination, deprivation and
heavy work pressure and low wages.
The owner of the
factory and his guards imprisoned these women workers to prevent solidarity of
other workers and its spread to the whole factory.
Due to unknown reason,
fire out broke in the factory and only a small number of imprisoned women
managed to escape and 129 women workers were burnt in the fire.
In subsequent years in
different European and American countries women struggle, demonstrations,
strikes against work pressure, discrimination and exploitation as well as for
enjoying equal rights in society and against war continued. One of the most
acknowledged women rights advocates in Germany was Ms. Klarastigien (1857-1933)
raised demands of women in that country on eight hours work per day for women,
the right of leave, maternity leave and equal rights before the law.
On August 27.1910 the
second international socialist conference with over one hundred participants
from seventeen countries was organized on the recommendation of Klarastigien in
Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark to defend the women rights against different
discrimination. The first official women day was marked on March 1911 in
Denmark, Germany, Austria, Swiss, USA with the participation of millions women.
Their main demands included supporting laws for worker women, rights of vote
and participation in election, fighting against Imperialistic wars, equal wages
with men against equal work, eight hours work per day, support of mother and
child and fixing of minimal wage. Due to global general economic crisis in 30s
as well as the danger of Fascism, the women struggles were marginalized.
Between the two world
wars, beside previous issues, the legal right of abortion and support of
mothers also enjoyed particular importance and this struggle was changed to a great
movement. Due to general economic crisis that influenced whole Europe in that
time, annually about one million women were forced to abortion. In the wake of
these illegal abortions in 1931, only in Germany about 44000 women died.
The issue of equal wages
against equal work, shortening of work hours, decreasing of commodities price
were among the women demands the demands which are not strange even today for
us. But due to taking over of power by Fascist dictatorship in Germany and
prohibition of any opposition movement, marking of this day become impossible.
Although in these years
the women rights activists and advocates put heavy emphasize on improvement of
women economic conditions and against pressure and discrimination in work
environment and less focus was made to the social man dominated and complicated
texture, but the freedom fighter women from different countries took up their demands for removal of discrimination
in family.
Following the WWII, the women’s day festival
was reorganized in European countries in 1946 officially by the then
governments. After the WWII, in Western European countries, in the beginning,
there was no program on women day but later this day was changed to women
general festival. But in 80s, the 8th of March regained its particular
importance and issues like equality of women rights in all fields of social
life including the right of abortion, removal of discrimination in family life
and support of pregnant mothers and post-delivery were focused.
In 1994 women protests reached
its peak in a women strike across Germany in which over one million women took
part against discrimination and unequal rights of women. Today this day is
celebrated in all countries of the world in commemoration of those brave women
who had initiated this day.
In the last two centuries, women achieved
serious and basic victories in recognition of their essential rights as in
majority of the world countries’, the women right of vote and their
participation in socio, political activities was officially recognized by
ruling governments. But still women
should go along way ahead.
Women in many cases are
facing violence in family, society and work environment, anti-women law are
ruling in many countries. Women are paid
less than man against equal work in even developed countries and women relative
income is lower than women. They are
deprived of less medical and educational resources as three quarter of
illiterate people are women.
IWD Timeline
·
1907 The Early Beginnings
·
1909 The First National Woman’s
Day in the US
·
1910 The Second International
Conference of Women
·
1911 International Woman’s Day
in the US and Europe
·
1912 Bread and roses!
·
1914-1916 War-Time Campaigning
·
1917 Massive Demonstrations in
Russia and the first official Woman’s Day in the USSR in 1922
·
Post 1945 Celebration in the
Communist World and change to plural.
·
1975-1977 International
Women’s Year in 1975 and the first UN International Women’s Day.
·
2019 IWD is now celebrated
more than a 100 countries
1907 The Early Beginnings
A common version of the
beginning of International Women's Day starts in 1907, with a march of textile
women workers in New York. Amidst public discussion about the conditions of
textile workers and women's campaign for suffrage, about 15,000 women working in
needle and textile industries marched through New York City. The demonstrators
sought to commemorate police brutality encountered in a women workers
demonstration in 1857, as well as demanded shorter work hours, better pay and
voting rights.
However, in her book On the Socialist Origins of International Women’s Day , Temma Kaplan (1985) argues that these demonstrations might not have actually taken place and that their myth was created during the Cold War to displace the socialist roots of International Women's Day.
1909 The First National Woman’s Day in the US
The first national
Woman's Day —note the singular "woman"— was held across the United
States on February 28, 1909. Charlotte Perkins Gilman addressed a crowd in New
York City, proclaiming: "It
is true that a woman's duty is centered in her home and motherhood but home
should mean the whole country and not be confined to three or four rooms of a
city or a state."
1910 The Second International Conference of Women
Preceding the general meeting of the Second
International, the Second
International Conference of Women was held in Copenhagen and
attended by about 100 women from 17 countries, who represented unions,
socialist parties, and working women's clubs. It also included the first three
women elected to the Finnish parliament. German Socialist Luise Zietz proposed
that an 'International Woman's Day' be held the following year, which was
seconded by her fellow socialist colleague Clara Zetkin. Interestingly, Zetkin
was an opponent of feminists but she tried to draw attention to the difficult
conditions of women workers. No date was set for the celebration, however.
1911 International Woman’s Day in the US and Europe
International Woman's Day was celebrated in Austria,
Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. More than one million women
and men attend IWD rallies worldwide. Austria-Hungary alone was a site of more
than 300 demonstrations to end gender discrimination and secure women's rights
to work, vote, be trained, and hold public office.
In the United States, the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911 took the lives of more than 140
workers, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrant women. The Commission set up
to investigate this fire and more generally the conditions of workers in
textile factories, influenced the state's labour legislation. Women's workers
were at the center of subsequent IWD celebrations.
1912 Bread and roses!
Continuing the call for better and safer working
conditions and higher wages was the Lawrence Textile strike, which was the
immediate response to the lowering of workers' wages and largely led by
immigrant women workers. The slogan "Bread and Roses" is said to come
from this strike, though the term first appeared in a James Oppenheim poem from
1911:
...As we come marching, marching,
we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!
1914-1916 War-Time Campaigning
During this period, women across Europe held rallies
to campaign against the war and to express women's solidarity. On the eve of
World War I, while campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first
International Women's Day.
1917 Massive Demonstrations in Russia and the first official Woman’s Day in
the USSR in 1922
On the eve of the Russian Revolution, a massive
demonstration took place. It was a protest against deteriorating living
conditions, lack of basic food supplies and the shortage of goods. Mainly women
took part in this demonstration, but men also were involved. It was lead by Alexandra
Kollontai, a Russian feminist, on the last Sunday in February (March 8
according to the Gregorian calendar).
In commemoration of this demonstration, the Soviet Union has celebrated Woman's Day on February 23 (March 8) since 1922 when Lenin made the celebration official.
Post 1945 Celebration in the Communist World and change to plural.
Officially adopted by the Soviet satellites, and by
China in 1949, International Women’s Day was celebrated primarily in socialist
countries until the mid-1970s.
Sometime in the post-1945 period the name switched from the singular "woman's" day to plural "women's" day.
Sometime in the post-1945 period the name switched from the singular "woman's" day to plural "women's" day.
1975-1977 International Women’s Year in 1975 and the first UN International
Women’s Day.
1975 was International Women's Year. That year, the
United Nations (UN) began celebrating International Women's Day on March 8.
Only two years later, in December 1977 the General Assembly adopted a
resolution proclaiming a "United
Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed on any
day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and
national traditions."
2019 International Women’s Day is now
celebrated more than a 100 countries
IWD is now celebrated in more than a 100 countries and
is an official
holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia,
China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro,
Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.
Wherever you are, dedicated to all women who
every day give the best of themselves.
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