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The Historical Origins of International Women's Day.
Rooted in the women workers' movement's struggles to improve working and living conditions at the beginning of the 20th century, the first International Women's Day was organized by socialists in North America in 1909, calling for a national women's day of action.
A year later, Clara Zetkin and Käte Duncker, both Social Democrats in Germany, proposed introducing a Women's Day during the Second International Socialist Women's Conference in Copenhagen
The first International Women's Day took place on March 19, 1911, in the USA, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and in Denmark.
A key issue on Women's Day at the time involved introducing voting rights for women. In the wake of WWI, International Women's Day also became a day of protest against the war.
Following the end of WWI and the introdction of women's suffrage in Austria in 1918, other issues took center stage on International Women's Day. Central demands included labor protection laws, equal pay for equal work, setting minimum wages, equal access to education, ample protection for mothers and children, and legal abortion.
Following a decision by the Second International Conference of Communist Women in Moscow in 1921, International Women's Day was moved to March 8. National Socialism banned International Women's Day and introduced Mother's Day as a public holiday instead, as Mother's Day was more in line with the National Socialist ideals of women. The post-World War II period was characterized by traditional images of women and families; women's struggles took a subordinate role and International Women's Day declined in importance. The situation changed at the end of the 1960s when the new women's movement was launched, bringing feminist issues - such as the right to autonomy - and International Women's Day back into focus.
The United Nations first commemorated International Women's Day in 1975. Two years later, in December 1977, the UN General Assembly formally recognized March 8 as a "Day for Women's Rights and World Peace" and called for member states to annually observe the day. International Women's Day subsequently evolved into a day of solidarity between women from all walks of life and of all political persuasions.
What International Women's Day means today
International Women's Day is now a public holiday in 26 countries, including many former socialist states such as Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine. While many of the calls made on International Women's Day have been met over the past hundred years, there are other issues that remain just as pressing today as they were back then. Even though women in Western countries are now legally equal, there is still much to be done to ensure true gender equality.
Women's structural disadvantage continues to be demonstrated by, among other things, an unequal distribution of resources. For example, women continue to earn less money for the same amount of work[1], spend significantly more time on uncompensated domestic and childcare responsibilities[2] and are less likely to hold management positions[3].
