The Day of the Woman
International Women’s Day has roots dating back to 1908; after thousands of women marched for better working conditions and higher pay in New York City. In 1909, The Socialist Party of America designated the date February 28 as National Woman’s Day in the U.S. In 1910, a German woman, Clara Zetkin, a women’s rights activist, proposed the idea of an International Women’s Day at an international socialist women’s conference in Copenhagen, Denmark according to Deutsche Welle.
Following the conference Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland marked International Women’s Day on March 19 with rallies. Women demanded the right to vote, work, access to vocational training, and the end to workplace discrimination.
In 1917, after women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia, March 8 became their national woman’s holiday. It was predominantly celebrated by the socialist, communist countries until 1975 when the United Nations recognized International Women’s Day on March 8. The day is now an official holiday in Russia, Cuba, parts of Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa according to NPR.
March 2019 marks the first time in Berlin (Germany’s capital and most populous city), International Women’s Day is held as a public holiday. People will have the opportunity to take the day off of work in celebration of it. Thousands will march in Berlin today with the slogan “Celebrate, strike, fight on” according to NPR.
We’re in the 100th year of women’s suffrage but we still have a lot to do.
Equal pay for equal work, access to labor markets, child care, reproductive rights, and protections against domestic abuse has still not widely been achieved. International Women’s Day is still largely ignored in many places, so the fight continues. Keep Slaying ladies!
