International Women’s Day

By Ava Guan (from the GHS Nightingale Newspaper)

Today (Friday 8th March) is International Women’s Day (IWD), a global holiday celebrated annually. It is celebrated to bring attention to world issues such as gender equality and violence against women.

International Women’s Day Timeline

1908: After years of inequality and oppression, 15000 women marched through New York City campaigning for shorter working hours, better pay and voting rights.

1909: In accordance with a declaration from the Socialist Party of America, the first National Women’s Day was celebrated in the USA on February 28^th.

1910: A second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Clara Zetkin (leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ in the Social Democratic Party in Germany) proposed the idea of an International Women’s Day. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries greeted this suggestion with unanimous approval.

1911: Following the decision agreed in Copenhagen, International Women’s Day was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19^th March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s right to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. The ‘Bread and Roses’ campaign also took place.

1913-14: Russian women had their first International Women’s Day on February 23^rd, which was the last Sunday in February. Then, IWD was agreed to be celebrated annually on the 8^th of March to follow the Gregorian Calendar. In London, there was a march from Bow to Trafalgar Square in support of women’s suffrage on March 8^th. However, Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross Station on her way to make a speech in Trafalgar Square.

1917: On the last Sunday of February, Russian women began a strike for ‘Bread and Peace’ in response to the death of over two million Russian soldiers in World War One. The women continued to strike until four days later when the Czar was forced to abdicate.

1975: IWD was marked for the first time by the United Nations.

1996: The United Nations announced their first annual theme for IWD – ‘Celebrating the past, planning for the future’.

2000: Feminism became a less popular topic and was not discussed very often anymore.

2001: The internationalwomensday.com platform was launched to make sure that there was mass participation on IWD as well as organising events. The platform also fundraised the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, as well as many other charities.

2011: The 100 year anniversary of IWD. President Barack Obama announced that March 2011 would be Women’s History Month.

2024: Health and education for women and girls has improved since the first protest in 1908. However, some women are still not paid equally to their male colleagues and women’s education is still a problem in some parts of the world; but the future holds great promise!

The theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is ‘Inspire Inclusion’.