International Women's Day (1 Viewer)

[paper cup]

That's today.

International Women's Day

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, 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.


International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.


The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:


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 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 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 the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.


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




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For more information, contact:

Development Section
Department of Public Information
Room S-1040, United Nations, New York, NY 10017
Email: mediainfo@un.org



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Published by the United Nations Department of Public Information--DPI/1878--January 1997

Yay for women.

 

[withoutaface]

As I walked past the women's day bbq I felt it was my duty to have a perv.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

Reporters sans Frontiers is comemorating women journalists around the world today on International Womens Day whose lives are in danger because of what they do....

 

[greeninsanity]

The International Women's Day rally and march is being held this Saturday (March 12), 12pm at Town Hall...

 

[monique66]

there was some breakfast on today as well...our school is getting into it so we have mufti tomorrow (cause today was school photos)

 

[Phanatical]

I wonder how many people here even know that there's also an International Men's Day?

 

[hiphophorray123]

bad enough i had to learn about feminists in sociology lecture today

 

[Riewe]

I didn't even know it was International Women's day until i watched Question time and they mentioned it. Where was the hype for this event? As it seems that International days like this is becoming more and more obscure.

 

[llamalope]

i was going to go to the bbq.... but unfortunately i was already running late for my econ1001 lecture.... then i ended up walking to the wrong place cause i misread my timtable... baaaaaahhhhh.

But yeah... good on the women!

 

[SashatheMan]

yey all yuo women can use an ironing-board from another country.. hooray for this international day.

 

[SashatheMan]

I knew you were going to say that before clikcing on the thread.

You will also know why it's not as well known.

men are always important, Its international mens day , everyday.

 

[katie_tully]

Why oh Why?

Statistics have proven that Generation Y no longer consider gender an issue - women are happy going back to being house wives, men are happy being house wives, women are happy being corporate bosses..

Sooner feminism dies, the better.

 

[Phanatical]

Ironically, of all the people I know, from the hippies and the socialists to the far right-wing, it's the guys who make the best cooks/chefs.

 

[katie_tully]

That's right.
So stay in yer kitchen, men. !

 

[neo o]

The International Women's Day rally and march is being held this Saturday (March 12), 12pm at Town Hall...

Oh what fun, a rally! AND A MARCH! gee whiz!

 

[SashatheMan]

how predictable

how about a glass of shut the fuck up.

all these days that mean nothing, what ever special happened on womans day anyway. People talked about it and the next day didnt give a rats ass again.

 

[paper cup]

Why oh Why?

Statistics have proven that Generation Y no longer consider gender an issue - women are happy going back to being house wives, men are happy being house wives, women are happy being corporate bosses..

Sooner feminism dies, the better.

can we get away from the feminist debate already...can't we just go 'yay, we have a international day?' *where's that fucking emoticon where the eyes are looking up toward the right*
that said I agree that feminism sucks, if only to side with the waf faction

 

[katie_tully]

can we get away from the feminist debate already...can't we just go 'yay, we have a international day?' *where's that fucking emoticon where the eyes are looking up toward the right*
that said I agree that feminism sucks, if only to side with the waf faction

what on earth are you on about.
it wasnt a debate, it was a general statement.

why do we need an "international womens day" anyway? what purpose does it serve?

 

[malkin86]

It's like National Brotherhood Week or Disability Month - for a whole day/week/whatever, we're supposed to care about each other and celebrate our achievements, especially the Women, or the Men, or the Disabled, or whomever. "It's only for a week, so have no fear - be grateful that it doesn't last all year!"

 

[katie_tully]

which is kinda crap considering that womens appreciation day should be every day, as should male appreciation