International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on
the 8th of March every year around the world. It is a focal point in the
movement for women's rights.
Background
After the Socialist Party of America organized a
Women's Day in New York City on February 28, 1909, German delegates and others
proposed at the 1910 International Socialist Woman's Conference that "a
special Women's Day" be organized annually. The day was predominantly
celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was
adopted by the feminist movement in about 1967. The United Nations began
celebrating the day in 1977.
Commemoration of International Women's Day today
ranges from being a public holiday in some countries to being largely ignored
elsewhere. In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that
celebrates womanhood.
History
and then
The earliest Women's Day observance, called
"National Woman's Day," was held on February 28, 1909, in New York
City, organized by the Socialist Party of America. In August 1910, an
International Socialist Women's Conference was organized to precede the general
meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired
in part by the American socialists, German delegates and others proposed the
establishment of an annual "Women's Day", although no date was
specified at that conference. Delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed
with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights including suffrage for
women.
The following year on March 19, 1911, IWD
(international women's day) was marked for the first time, by over a million
people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Women demanded that they
be given the right to vote and to hold public office. They also protested against
employment sex discrimination. In 1914, International Women's Day was held on
March 8 in Germany, possibly because that day was a Sunday, and now it is
always held on March 8 in all countries. On May 8, 1965, by the decree of the
USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women's Day was declared a
non-working day in the USSR. It was commemorated by the communists in China
from 1922.
The day was taken up by second-wave feminists. In
the 1970s and 1980s, women's groups were joined by leftists and labor
organizations in calling for equal pay, equal economic opportunity, equal legal
rights, reproductive rights, subsidized child care, and the prevention of
violence against women. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited
member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace.
In the 21st century, in the West, the day was
increasingly sponsored by major corporations and used to promote feel–good
messages, rather than radical social reforms. In 2009, the British marketing
firm, Aurora Ventures, set up a "International Women's Day" website
with corporate sponsorship. The website began to promote hashtags as themes for
the day, which became used internationally. The day was commemorated by business
breakfasts and social media communications that were reminiscent of Mother's
Day greetings.
Yearly
commemorations
On the occasion of 2010 International Women's Day
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) drew attention to the
hardships displaced women endure. On the occasion of International Women's Day
2012, the ICRC called for more action to help the mothers and wives of people
who have gone missing during armed conflict.
The ICRC underlined the duty of parties to this conflict to search for the
missing and provide information to the families. The International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) drew attention to the plight of women in prison.
Official
UN Themes
Year UN
Theme
2015 Empowering
Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!
2016 Planet
50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality
2017 Women
in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030
2018 Time
is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women's lives
2019 Think
Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change
2020 "I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights ”