International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.

Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

The UN and Gender Equality

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has helped create a historic legacy of internationally-agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

Over the years, the UN and its technical agencies have promoted the participation of women as equal partners with men in achieving sustainable development, peace, security, and full respect for human rights. The empowerment of women continues to be a central feature of the UN’s efforts to address social, economic and political challenges across the globe.

Chronology

• 1909   The first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.
• 1910   The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women’s Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women’s rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.
• 1911   As a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.
• 1913-1914   International Women’s Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists.
• 1917   Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for “Bread and Peace” on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.
• 1975 During International Women’s Year, the United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March.
• 1995 The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189 governments, focused on 12 critical areas of concern, and envisioned a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination.
• 2014 The 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58) – the annual gathering of States to address critical issues related to gender equality and women’s rights — focused on “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls”. UN entities and accredited NGOs from around the world took stock of progress and remaining challenges towards meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs have played an important role in galvanizing attention on and resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• 2015 In 2015, countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 5 is “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

National Womens Day in India:

National Women’s Day of India was observed on 13 February 2014. This day is observed on the date of birth of India’s first women governor Sarojini Naidu. Sarojini Naidu was born on 13 February 1879 and died on 2 March 1949. This was the 135th birth anniversary of Sarojini Naidu.

Her birthday has been selected to observe as a National Woman Day in recognition of the works done by her for uplliftment and development of women in India. Her name and birth date was proposed to celebrate as the National Women’s Day in India by members of Bhartiya Mahila Sangh and Akhil Bhartiya Mahila Sammelan.

Sarojini Naidu

• Sarojini Naidu is also known as the Nightingale of India
  • She was a child prodigy, a poet and an activist during the independence of India
  • From 1947 to 1949, she served as the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
  • In 1925, she served as second woman to become President of the Indian National Congress and the first Indian woman to do so
  • Naidu joined the Indian national movement after the partition of Bengal in 1905
  • In 1928, the British Government awarded her with the medal Naidu Kaiser-i-Hind for her work during the plague epidemic in India
  
  Literary works of Sarojini Naidu
  • Golden Threshold published in 1905 was her first collection of poems
  • The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death and the Spring
  • Feast of Youth
  • The Magic Tree
  • The Wizard Mask
  • Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity
  • The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India, Allahabad: Kitabistan
  • The Indian Weavers
  
  Apart from this, the International Women’s Day is observed and celebrated on 8 March every year.

International Women’s Day 2019:

International Women’s Day 2019 is being celebrated all over the world on Friday, 08th of March.

International Women’s Day theme 2019 is “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change”. The theme will also be supported by the hash tag #BalanceforBetter across the social media platforms.

Berlin will be the first to declare International Women’s Day as a public holiday. The parliament of Berlin has announced that onwards every year International Women’s Day will be a public holiday. It is considered as a step towards spreading awareness about the women rights and equality.

International Women’s Day 2019 will also be celebrated at UN Headquarter with various activities which will be attended by women from the field of science, technology, engineering etc. The event will be organized by UN Women, the UN agency which is dedicated to promote gender equality and women empowerment in the world.

International Women’s Day “IWD” is also known as the International Working Women’s Day or United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace which is celebrated every year on 8th of March all across the world in different regions of the countries in order to focus the achievements and contributions of the women in the society. The celebration of this event varies from region to region.

Generally, it is celebrated to provide respect to whole women fraternity, appreciate them and to express love for them. As women are the major part of the society and plays a great role in the economic, political, and social activities, international women’s day is commemorated to remember and appreciate women’s all over achievements.

International women’s day celebration was started celebrating as a socialist political event during which the holiday is proclaimed in many countries. At this event celebration, men express their love, care, appreciation and affection towards women just like the event of Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. It is celebrated every year with a preplanned and particular theme of the year to strengthen the political and social awareness towards the women struggles and their precious contributions.

 BY Dr. Sailaja. Petikam