International Women's Day 2020

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 23^rd. This day in the Gregorian calendar is March 8^th - and that is why it is celebrated on that date today.

So March 8^th 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. 

60m portrait of Greta Thunberg is unveiled on a school playing fireld