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International Women's Day is customarily celebrated on March 8, and this year is said to be its 100th anniversary
Annette Lawson is chair of National Alliance of Women's Organisations in Britain. She has an OBE for services to diversity and is founder and chair of the Judith Trust, which works for better lives for people with both learning disabilities and mental illness needs. The opinions expressed are her own. Thomson Reuters is hosting a live blog on March 8, 2011, the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.
International Women‘s Day is customarily celebrated on March 8, and this year is said to be its 100th anniversary.
Actually, some people celebrated its centenary last year and it would have made almost as much sense to do so in 1957 since, on March 8, 1857, the first rally staged by women labourers to dramatise their plight took place outside a clothes factory in New York City.
Chief among their complaints were the comparatively low salary for women, long hours of work, and the heavier workload assigned to female workers. Notwithstanding the rally, their complaints fell on deaf ears (No! Never!).
There is not one history but several. However, there is a consensus that in Copenhagen in 1910 an International Socialist Conference of Women agreed that Women‘s Days, which had been being celebrated on the last Sunday in February in some places and on March 19, in others, should become one agreed International Women‘s Day.
Thus, International Women‘s Day was first celebrated as such in 1911. One explanation for its current date of March 8, is the difference between the Gregorian and present calendars.
Meanwhile, everyone agrees that, during the United Nations International Women's Year (1975), the United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day and encouraged member states to do the same. Eventually the date settled but events continue to be organised all around that date.
In socialist states and in others not socialist but with strong trade unions and a powerful interest in women‘s employment conditions, the day became one in which women were feted and given presents – especially flowers – more so than on Mothers‘ Day or Mothering Sunday.
This year, there are long lists of celebrations all of which combine the fun with serious messages about women’s continuing inequalities. For example, in the UK, Oxfam are asking people to ‘Have a Do‘ and Action Aid are launching their "Get Lippy" campaign.
Million Women Rise are marching on March 5, from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square against all forms of violence against women and in Trafalgar Square there will be stalls and much else; NAWO (the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations of which I am Chair) will be there and we are intending to excite both palates and minds!
Join us!
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