International women’s Day
Its seeds were
planted in the labour movement in 1908 when 15,000 women marched through the
streets of New York.
Their demands
included shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote.
A year later, the
Socialist Party of America announced the first National Women’s Day.
The idea of
celebrating this day as International women’s Day was brought forward by Clara
Zetkin, a communist activist and advocate of women’s rights. She first proposed
this idea at a conference of working women in Copenhagen in 1910.
At that conference,
100 women from 17 countries were present and all unanimously accepted Clara’s
idea.
Women’s Day was
celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland in 1911.
This day became
official in1975.
Clara had no specific
date in mind when she came up with the idea of women’s day.
In 1917, Russian
women went on strike, the political situation at the time led to the abduction
of three Russian Czars. Julian calendar was used in Russia at that time and the
editorial date was 23 February. According to the Gregorian calendar (which we
use today), it was March 7, so international women’s day was finally decided to
be celebrated on March 8.
Purple colour symbolises
‘justice and dignity’, hence it has importance on this day.
International Women’s
Day is celebrated to commemorate and honour women’s accomplishments, raise
awareness about gender disparities and discrimination, as well as promote
global support for women.
It recognizes cultural,
political and socio-economic achievements of women in various fields.
Women’s Day also
marks a call for a gender-equal world that is free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination
and is diverse, equitable and inclusive while differences are valued and
celebrated.
This year, 2023,
the theme for International Women’s Day is “Embrace Equity”.
