International Women’s Day
The 8th of March marks the 99th anniversary of this global celebration. What makes this day special?
A little history
International Women’s Day (IWD) has been observed since 1911 after a decision taken in Copenhagen to mark 19th March in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, to vote, to be trained, to hold public office and to end discrimination.
However less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic ‘Triangle Fire’ in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women’s Day events. 1911 also saw the women’s ‘Bread and Roses’ campaign.
1913-1914On the eve of World War I, campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International
Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. After discussions, International Women’s Day was postponed to 8th March and this day has remained the global date for International Women’s Day ever since. In 1914 more women across Europe held rallies to campaign against the war and to express women’s solidarity.
1918 – 1999For decades, IWD has gone from strength to strength. For many years the United Nations held an annual IWD conference to co-ordinate international efforts for women’s rights and participation in social, political and economic processes.
With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights and an increase in women’s visibility as role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality.
The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid the same as their male counterparts, women still are not represented in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally attention given to women’s education and health is less than that accorded to men.
Great strides have however been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers. School girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices. So, the tone and nature of IWD has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives.
Annually on 8th March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements.
Marking this significant day, WiA would like to congratulate and celebrate every woman in South Africa and throughout the world.
By Marcia Pires
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Tags: discrimination, international, wia, women, women in action
This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 2:35 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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