INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Subject: Current Events

Concept:

• The concept of International Women’s Day emerged in the early 1900s at a time of great unrest and debates among women against oppression and inequality.
• In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. The next year, the Socialist Party of America observed the first National Woman’s Day across the United States on February 28, 1909.
• Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of February until 1913.
• Simultaneously, in 1910, the second International Conference of Working Women was held in Denmark’s Copenhagen, where Clara Zetkin, who led the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day.
• She proposed that every year, every country should celebrate on the same day to press for their demands.
• On March 9, 1911, International Women’s Day was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
• More than one million women and men attended the rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.
• Meanwhile in Russia, on the eve of World War I, women observed their first International Women’s Day on February 23, the last Sunday in February, with a strike for “bread and peace” to protest the death of over two million Russian soldiers.
• In the United Nations, it was celebrated for the first time in 1975, and in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
• In 1996, the UN announced their first annual theme — “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future”, followed by “Women at the Peace table” in 1997. In 1998 “Women and Human Rights”, in 1999 “World Free of Violence Against Women”, each year had a new theme.