For the last 107 years, International Women’s Day has been celebrated every March 8. It emerged with the aim of promoting equal rights among men and women, including suffrage. It honors all the women who fought, raised their voices, and even gave their lives for the right for respect, inclusion, and fair participation in society.
Many struggles, arduous working conditions, long working hours, and wage differences prompted countless protests, meetings, congregations and strikes until victory was finally achieved. In 1910, at the second International Conference of Working Women meeting in Copenhagen, the demand for universal suffrage for all women was reiterated and Clara Zetkin’s proposal proclaiming March 8 as International Working Women’s Day was accepted.
Over 100 female attendees from 17 countries, including the first three women elected for the Finnish parliament, unanimously endorsed Zetkin’s proposal. The objective was to promote equal rights, including women’s right to vote.
However, about a week later on March 25, 1911, a tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, mostly immigrants. This event had great repercussions in the labor legislation of the United States and subsequent International Women’s Day events referenced the working conditions that led to the disaster.
Today, many of the desired changes have still not yet happened. Every woman is a fighter in her role: at home, in the workplace, as an entrepreneur, etc. With every one of their actions, women are the ambassadors of peace and gender equality.
Every March 8, we remember not only those women from the past, but also those today who are capable of carrying out multiple tasks and achievements at the same time, those who tirelessly continue to raise their voices for more changes, and especially those who in this century continue living silenced, abused, and displaced.
The 2016 theme for International Women’s Day is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality.” For its part, the United Nations seeks ways to accelerate the agenda for 2030 and focuses on new commitments under UN Women’s “Step It Up Initiative” and other existing commitments on gender equality, women’s empowerment, and women’s human rights.
Source: unwomen.org
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