Happy Women's Day to all readers!
I was in a discussion yesterday on the origins of the International Women's Day and someone suggested that the The Russian Revolution was the reason. I was sure that the February Revolution (In February by Russian Calendar, In March by Western European Calendar) had started because the women had celebrated the International Women's Day and that the demonstrations got out of hand when soldiers joined the women and asked for peace and bread. I therefore had to look this up.
It was decided on the Second International Socialist Women's Congress in Copenhagen in 1910 that a women's day was needed. The day should be used to promote female suffrage and other women's rights. The first Women's Day was thus celebrated in 1911 in a few European countries. The day, 8th March, was chosen by German women as the Prussian King, faced by military uprising, had promised many reforms on the 8th March 1848 and amongst them was an unfulfilled one on women's votes. However, the first Women's Days were celebrated on the 19th March the day celebrated on the 1910 congress.
As the years went by more and more nations took part in women's day celebrations. In I975, UN's International Women's Year, 8th of March was proclaimed as International Women's Day by the UN. The UN was, however, involved in women's day earlier than that. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the Organization has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programs and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.
Still, 8th of March 1917 in Petrograd (St Petersburg/Leningrad) is the most memorable Women's Day. Alexandra Kollontai, who had been one of the leading women on the 1910 congress - and been head speaker on the first Women's Day in Norway in 1915 - participated when the female textile workers decided to mark the day even though they had been asked to keep calm.
Links:
International Women's Day on internationalwomensday,com
International Women's Day on Infoplease.com - with many links
A History of International Women's Day in Words and Images on Isis.aust.com
UN's page of The History of International Women's Day and their page for children on the International Women's Day.
A Brief History of International Women's Day
History of International Women's Day (American perspective) on National Women's History Project
I remember having a poster of Kollontai above my bed when I was a teenager. I was a quite eager socialist then.
The discussion concerning gender vs social class is a very topical subject in Sweden these days when a new feminist party challenges the established political parties.
Posted by: Ella | Tuesday, March 08, 2005 at 15:41