INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

“The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

International Women’s Day is commemorated by the United Nations and celebrated in many countries around the world on March 8^th. Women on all continents, who are often divided by nationality, 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.  This commemorative day celebrates ordinary women as makers of history and as the foundation stone on which family is built. The idea of an International Women’s Day first arose at the turn of the 20^th century, which in the then industrialised world was a period of expansion and turbulence, social and economic changes, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events (source, UN):

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^th 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^th March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million people attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, women demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

Less than a week later, on 25^th 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^th 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^rd February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8^th 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.

More information from Wikipedia.

Our word of the day reflects this commemoration:

matriarchy |ˈmātrēˌärkē| noun ( pl. -chies)

A system of society or government ruled by a woman or women.

• A form of social organization in which descent and relationship are reckoned through the female line.

• The state of being an older, powerful woman in a family or group: She cherished a dream of matriarchy—catered to by grandchildren.

ORIGIN early 17th century: from Latin mater ‘mother,’ on the false analogy of patriarch.