International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 every year, as a day of remembrance of the struggles of the women's rights movement.
While the first observance of Women's Day took place on February 28, 1909 in New York, March 8 was proposed by the International Women's Conference in 1910 to establish an "International Women's Day".
After women won the right to vote in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 was established as a national holiday there. At that time it was celebrated mainly by the socialist movement and the communist countries until its adoption in 1975 by the United Nations.
The History
The first observance of "Woman's Day" was called "National Woman's Day" and was held on February 28, 1909 in New York, where it was organized by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of Theresa Malkiel. Although there have been claims that the day commemorated a protest by garment workers in New York City on March 8, 1857, researchers have debunked them as a myth.
On August 19, 1910, an International Women's Conference was organized as a precursor to the general meeting of the Second International Socialist Community in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Inspired in part by American socialists, the German Socialist Louise Chitsch proposed the establishment of an annual International Women's Day and was supported by fellow socialist and later communist leader Clara Chetkin, supported by Kate Duque but without a specific date set.
The delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed with the idea as a means of promoting equal rights, including the right to vote for women.
The following year, on March 19, 1911, International Women's Day was marked for the first time with the participation of over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. There were 300 demonstrations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone.
In Vienna, women marched on the Ringstrasse and held up banners to honor the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Women demanded to be given the right to vote and hold public office. They also protested against gender discrimination at work. Americans continued to celebrate National Women's Day on the last Sunday of February.
In 1913 Russian women designated their first International Women's Day on the last Saturday of February (according to the Julian calendar then used in Russia).
Although there were some strikes, marches, and other protests by women in the years leading up to 1914, none of them occurred on March 8.
In 1914, International Women's Day took place on March 8, probably because that day was a Sunday, and since then it has always been held on that date in all countries. The observance of the Day in Germany in 1914 was dedicated to women's suffrage, which the German women finally acquired in 1918.
London marched from the Bow to Trafalgar Square in support of women's suffrage on 8 March 1914. Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested outside Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.
On March 8, 1917 (according to the Gregorian calendar), in the capital of the Russian Empire, Petrograd, women textile workers demonstrated, filling the streets of the entire city. This marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
Women in St. Petersburg went on strike that day for “Bread and Peace” – demanding an end to World War I, an end to food shortages and an end to tsarism.
Leon Trotsky wrote that "February 23rd (March 8th) was International Women's Day and there were meetings and events. But we did not imagine that this "Women's Day" would herald the beginning of the revolution. Revolutionary actions were taken but without a specific date. In the morning, in spite of the orders they had received, the women textile workers left their work in the various factories and sent representatives to ask for support for the strike ... which led to a mass strike ... everyone took to the streets." Seven days later, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia abdicated and the Provisional Government granted women the right to vote.
After the October Revolution, Bolshevik Alexandra Kollondai and Vladimir Lenin designated February 23 (March 8) as an official holiday in the Soviet Union, but it continued to be a working day until 1965. On May 8, 1965 by decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, International Women's Day was declared a non-working day in the USSR "to commemorate the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communist construction, in the defense of their motherland during the Great Patriotic War, in heroism and selflessness at the front and in behind and also marking the great contribution of women to the strengthening of friendship between peoples and the struggle for peace. So women's day should be celebrated like other holidays".
Since its official adoption in Soviet Russia after the Revolution in 1917, the day has been celebrated mainly in communist countries and by the communist movement worldwide. It began to be celebrated by the Communists of China since 1922.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the State Council declared on December 23 that March 8 would be designated as a public holiday, with women in China entitled to half a day off.
Communist leader Dolores Imparuri led a women's march in Madrid in 1936 on the eve of the Spanish Civil War.
The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day in the International Women's Year of 1975. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly called on member states to declare March 8 as the UN Day for Women's Rights and World Peace.
Worldwide
The day is a public holiday in Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.
In some countries, such as Cameroon, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Chile, the day is not a public holiday, but is widely celebrated.
On this day it is customary for men to give gifts to the women in their lives (girlfriends, mothers, wives, fiancees, daughters, colleagues, etc.) flowers and small gifts. In some countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also celebrated as an equivalent of Mother's Day, where children also give small gifts for mothers and grandmothers.
In Russia, the day has lost its political context over time and has become simply a day to honor women and female beauty.
In Italy, to celebrate the day, men give yellow mimosas to women.
Communist politician Teresa Mattei, in 1946, chose the mimosa as the symbol of International Women's Day in Italy because she felt that French symbols of the day such as the violet were too rare and expensive to be used effectively in Italy.
In the United States, actress and human rights activist Beata Posniak worked with the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Governor of California to convince members of the US Congress to propose official recognition of the holiday. In February 1994, a bill was proposed by Maxine Waters with the support of 79 MPs, in an effort to officially recognize March 8 as a public holiday. The bill was then referred to and remained in the Home Office Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. No vote was taken in either chamber of Congress.
Since 2019, International Women's Day has been celebrated as a holiday in the federal state of Berlin, Germany.
Source: protothema.gr
