Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day is celebrated worldwide with a series of events, rallies, and protests, with each year taking on a new theme. This year’s theme is Gender Parity, which calls for more efforts to be made to increase the participation of women both economically and politically.
The origins of International Women’s Day go as far back as March 8, 1857, when female garment workers first rallied in the streets of New York City, which initiated a movement that led to the creation of the first women’s labour union. Later, on March 8, 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City for reasonable work hours, better pay, the right to vote, and to eradicate child labour.
The following year, after the Socialist Party of America declared the last Sunday of February to be National Women’s Day, February 28, 1909 became the first recorded National Women’s Day. This milestone continued to be celebrated in the U.S. until 1913.
In 1910, Copenhagen hosted an International Conference of Working Women, where a woman named Clara Zetkin proposed the idea of an International Women’s Day. The idea was to provide one day where women from every country in the world could come together and push for equality. At this conference, female representatives from 17 different countries agreed with Zetkin that International Women’s Day should be celebrated on the same day every year.
As a result of this conference’s decision, the first ever recorded International Women’s Day occurred on March 19, 1911, and was celebrated in four different countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Regardless of being honoured by only a few countries, this day saw over one million men and women rallying together in Europe for a multitude of causes, including women’s right to work, to be trained, to hold positions of authority in the government, and to vote. The day became an important factor in the timeline of the women’s movement. In February 1913, Russia celebrated their first International Women’s Day, and, in the same year, the date became globally recognized as March 8. The U.S. also changed their National Women’s Day to be recognized as an international event.
Between 1913 and 1970, the world saw an influx in action surrounding women’s rights. In 1917, Russian women achieved the right to vote after a four-day strike that began on March 8 via the Gregorian calendar (February 23 on Russia’s then-in-use Julian calendar). Canadian women were granted the right to vote per province and at different times—Ontario women were given the right in 1917—while women in the U.S. were granted suffrage nationally in 1920.
In 1975, the United Nations finally recognized and celebrated International Women’s Day, and in 1996, the UN initiated the adoption of an annual theme—the first being “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future.”
Unfortunately, gearing into the new millennium, the concept of International Women’s Day, as well as feminism in general, seemed to be forgotten by many places in the world. Of course, the fight wasn’t won and the UN decided to completely rebrand International Women’s Day, hoping to re-encourage its celebration and recognition. This saw the creation of International Women’s Day’s online presence, which, thanks to the digital age, made it easier for International Women’s Day campaigners and founders to reach the world’s masses.
Now, because of the efforts of our foremothers, International Women’s Day has become a worldwide celebration and milestone, and continues to be used to make an impact through campaigning, fundraising, rallying, picketing, and organizing. Many countries have actually made International Women’s Day an official holiday, including Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.
Thanks to International Women’s Day and the women involved in first- and second-wave feminism, there are many areas in the world —particularly first-world countries—where women have the opportunity to work, vote, and get an education. For many, marriage is no longer a mandatory rite, but a choice to be made by the individual.
However, a large chunk of women still do not have access to these rights, and there is still much work to be done to achieve equality. Large numbers of women everyday, especially trans women, suffer and die from violence of all kinds. Young women are still being forced into marriages, forced to have children, forced to leave their families, and forced out of school. Many girls miss out on an education simply because they don’t have access to health products like pads and tampons that North Americans take for granted. Reproductive rights and the rights to our own bodies still barely exist in North America, and are a distant concept in many other countries.
International Women’s Day sets out to celebrate the progress that we women have made, but also serves as a day where all people who identify as a woman—regardless of race, culture, religion, sexuality, class, and geography—can unite in solidarity and fight for change.
–Written by Danielle Subject