International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated every year on 8th March. We say that Women’s Day can not be restricted to a single day. Every day is Women’s Day. It’s true, women are indispensable part of society and so everyday is Women’s Day. But why then this particular day is celebrated as Women’s Day. It’s time to glance through the history of IWD.
On 28th February 1909, New York city observed ” Women’s Day” for the first time organized by the Socialist Party of America . There have been claims that the day was commemorating a protest by women garment workers in New York on 8th March 1857, but researchers have described it as a myth created to detach IWD from its Soviet history in order to give it a more international origin.
In August 1910, an International Socialist Women’s Conference was organized in Copenhagen, Denmark. German delegates proposed the establishment of an annual “Women’s Day”, although no date was specified in the conference. Delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights including suffrage for women.
On 19th March,1911, IWD 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 hold public office. They also protested against sex discrimination in employment.
The Americans continued to celebrate National Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February. In 1913, Russian Women observed their first IWD on the last Saturday in February.
In 1914, IWD was held on 8th March in Germany, possibly because that day was a Sunday.
After Women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, 8th March became National Holiday there. The day was then 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. From then on IWD is celebrated every year on 8th of March.
IWD is a day celebrated globally recognizing the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. One particular Government, NGO, or any particular Institution or media is not responsible for organising and celebrating IWD. Many organizations declare a theme for annual IWD, that supports their specific cause. Purple ,the colour which signifies justice and dignity is the internationally recognized colour which symbolizes women.
India not only celebrates IWD, but had given recognition to the achievements of women in different fields, whether in space science or an author, whether professor, doctor or politician, or in a top position in corporate sector or may be a player, actress or a social worker or entrepreneur. Today’s Indian Women not only sit back at home and depend on the earnings of their spouses but have come way forward sometimes independently and sometimes joined hands with their spouse for a better living. They are managing the household as well as their workplace equally,but that definitely creates a physical and mental stress on them, which may sometimes lead to misunderstandings or differences in opinion in families. It is the male fraternity who at this juncture should come forward and share the household responsibilities equally with the women.
The working mothers at times regret for not being able to give sufficient time to their kids. But at the same time they are not ready to give up financial independence, rather they prefer spending less but quality time with their kids. Many workplaces are now providing work from home options which are very useful specially for working mothers.
It is not only legal equality that works, or equality in workplace, the meaning of equality can be given a proper shape only when the women gets such respect, equality, love and support not only in workplace but also in family. We look forward to a day when women will not have to struggle for equality anywhere but the society will be irradicated of any differences in terms of gender.
News In Put : By Debjani Basu Mullick
