History of International Women's Day

History of International Women’s Day

For some skeptics, celebrating March 8 as Women’s Day is a form of tokenism. For some others of their ilk, it’s yet another marketing strategy and a upward graph line on profit charts of greeting card manufacturers, gift shops and florists. For many more…issues range from blah to blah…each reason while glorifying in its logic fails to understand, see and acknowledge the many resolutions made and completed on this day over the years.

As the Australian International Women’s Day website points out: “Over the years, International Women’s Day (IWD) has taken to the streets, sparked off a revolution, met cosily at luncheons and concerts, rubbed shoulders with Premiers, Prime Ministers and Mayors, demonstrated at the doors of newspapers and welfare institutions, occupied empty houses intent on gaining shelter for homeless women and has ushered in reform legislation.”

The actual debut year of March 8 as Women’s day differs from source to source. However, a well-acknowledged and sure fact is that in 1975 was celebrated as the International Women’s year. In that same year, the United Nations celebrated March 8 as International Women’s day thereby lending a more global credibility to this day. 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. (Source: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/history.html)

While the IWD Australia’s article on the origin of International Women’s Day gives a socio-political overview, the chronological representation on the International Women’s Day official website gives a year-by-year account: Here is a more concise version on the UN website:

History
International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.

1909: The first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.

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 build support for 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 Copenhagen initiative, 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 women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

1913-1914: International Women’s Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February. 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 other activists.

1917: Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for ‘Bread and Peace’ on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

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 to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas. 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 their countries and communities.