International Women’s Day

Hello all,
    Today is International Women’s Day. So let me wish all the grandmas, moms, girls, and newborn sweetie pie girls ;) a very happy Women’s Day.

    So what is this Women’s Day thing? Its a day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women, and also a day for reinforced women woman empowerment campaigns.

    Shown above is the official logo for the 2007 version of Women’s Day. In my opinion, this logo might be effective in places where impunity (i.e. exemption from punishment) is being shown for violence against the female sex. But in my native country, India, women have always been respected, and in the Hindu mythology, equal, if not more, importance is given to female Godesses as male Gods.

    Anyway, a quote from the Wikipedia on the history of Women’s Day -

The first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. Among other relevant historic events, it commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (New York, 1911), where over 140 women lost their lives. The idea of having an international women’s day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions. Women from clothing and textile factories staged one such protest on 8 March 1857 in New York City. The garment workers were protesting what they saw as very poor working conditions and low wages. The protesters were attacked and dispersed by police. These women established their first labor union in the same month two years later.

More protests followed on 8 March in subsequent years, most notably in 1908 when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910 the first international women’s conference was held in Copenhagen (in the labour-movement building located at Jagtvej 69, which until recently housed Ungdomshuset) by the Socialist International and an ‘International Women’s Day’ was established, which was submitted by the important German Socialist Clara Zetkin. The following year, IWD was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. However, soon thereafter, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed over 140 garment workers. A lack of safety measures was blamed for the high death toll. Furthermore, on the eve of World War I, women across Europe held peace rallies on 8 March 1913. In the West, International Women’s Day was commemorated during the 1910s and 1920s, but dwindled. It was revived by the rise of feminism in the 1960s.

Demonstrations marking International Women’s Day in Russia proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik feminist Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday, and it was established, but was a working day until 1965. On May 8, 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women’s Day was declared as a non working day in the USSR “in commemoration of outstanding merits of the Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War, their heroism and selflessness at the front and in rear, and also marking the big contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples and struggle for the peace”

    Did you know that Women’s Day is an official holiday in so many countries? Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam observe March 8th as an official holiday! In many countries, its observed as an equivalent for Mother’s Day!

    So once again, let me wish all of you, including males ;), a very happy women’s day! Dear women out there, let me just tell you how important you are. You bring life onto this world. You make men crave for more ;) Apart from the differences is sex, and a few physical and mental characteristics, we are all humans! [Indeed, the word “women” is pronounced as “we-men”! I rest my case…]…

    Cheers :)

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March 8, 2007 | Filed Under General World | Leave a Comment 

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