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| Clara Zetkin founded IWD in 1910 |
Many women are boycotting
demonstrations today due to the Coronavirus pandemic but we can still celebrate
International Women's Day (IWD) by writing about it and celebrating the huge
successes of women despite the odds.
It’s laughable when I see a
multitude of online comments from men - and women - saying ‘What’s the big
deal? I don’t care if a movie/book/play, etc, etc is written by a man or woman –
as long as it’s good! But the point is, it is still a man’s world, men still
get paid more than women for doing the same job and women are still abused,
tortured and belittled around the world purely for being a woman.
Only 20 or so years ago, J.K
Rowling didn’t use her first name on her first novel because it was thought
less children would buy it if it was written by a woman. It wasn’t until 1991
that all women in Switzerland were allowed to vote. Crazy.
So yes, there is still a
great deal of work to do. And how did IWD, now a UN-recognised annual event,
come around?
The seeds were planted in
1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York demanding shorter working
hours, better pay and the right to vote. The Socialist Party of America then
declared the first National Woman's Day a year later.
In 1910, Clara Zetkin began
the process of marking the day across the globe by making it a suggestion at
the International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. There were 100
women there, from 17 countries - and they agreed unanimously. In 1911, IWD was
celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland and it grew from there.
Clara's idea for an
International Women's Day had no fixed date. It wasn't formalised until a
war-time strike in 1917 when Russian women demanded ‘bread and peace’ - and
four days into the women's strike the Tsar was forced to abdicate and the
provisional government granted women the right to vote. The date when the
women's strike commenced on the Julian calendar, which was then in use in
Russia, was February 23rd. This day in the Gregorian calendar is March
8th - and that is why it is celebrated on that date today.
So March 8th has
become a date to celebrate how far women have come in society but also to
protest and raise awareness of continued inequality throughout the world. It is a national holiday in
many countries, including Russia where the sales of flowers doubles around this
time. In China, many women are given a half-day off work as advised by the
State Council (although many employers don't always pass the half-day on to
their female employees) In the US, the month of March is Women's History Month.
A presidential proclamation issued every year honours the achievements of
American women.
The past few years have seen
the women's movement reach an unprecedented scale. In October 2017, millions
began using the hashtag #MeToo on social media to speak out against experiences
of harassment and sexual assault, and to denounce their widespread prevalence. In
2018, the #MeToo conversation grew to a global scale, with countries such as
India, France, China, and South Korea joining in the conversation to demand change.
In the US, a record number of women were elected in the midterm elections.
Last year saw abortion
decriminalised in Northern Ireland and the repeal of a law that controlled how
women acted and dressed in public in Sudan.
This year a giant portrait of
Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg (see below) has been unveiled in West Yorkshire to
mark today. Pupils chose the 17-year-old as the woman who had most inspired them for the 60m long artwork on a playing field at Hebden Royd Primary School in West Yorkshire in the UK.
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| 60m portrait of Greta Thunberg is unveiled on a school playing fireld |
Ingredients
