http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/03/#
International Women’s Day Is Not a Hallmark Holiday By The Cut
<span>It's been around since 1911.</span>
International Women's Day has come again and with it, the classic misguided
notion that it — like Take Your Friend's Kid's Son to Work Day and National
Gluten-Free Grilled-Cheese Day — is a holiday created by marketing brain
trusts at major brands to promote capitalism. Contrary to popular belief,
the noted men at Tampax did not sit around and brainstorm a new national
holiday on which to promote their products. Why bother with all the
kerfuffle and misguided hashtag attempts — we already have one. And it's
been around since the early 1900s.
Though we now fondly know March 8 every year to be the day we celebrate
International Women's Day, it's not always been that way. In 1908, amid
early discussions about women's poorly paid labor, long hours, and lack of
voting rights (hahahahaha, sound familiar?), the first Women's Day marches
took place. The very first was in 1908
<
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/About>, when 15,000 women (in New
York City, baby!) took to the streets to protest. Only a year later and the
inaugural national Women's Day was born on February 28, 1909, in
conjunction with the Socialist Party of America. Were the first Bernie Bros
actually women? It really makes you think.
This tradition of celebrating National Women's Day continued for five years
in the States, while Germans Louise Zietz
<
http://womenshistorynetwork.org/blog/?tag=louise-zeitz> and Clara Zetkin
were floating a larger idea internationally. Taking inspiration from
Zietz, Zetkin,
a Marxist and advocate or women's rights
<
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2012/mar/08/clara-zetkin-international-womens-day>,
brought the idea of having an International Women's Day to the International
Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910. Her idea was appreciated
so much by the hundreds of women in attendance — socialists, workers, and
union laborers alike — that they all decreed that it must happen the
following year. On March 19, 1911, Europe saw its first-ever International
Women's Day. The date was subsequently changed to March 8 two years later,
and stuck. It's been that way ever since.
The holiday continued steadily on every year and was finally acknowledged
by the U.N. in 1975, who decided to officially sanction and recognize the
holiday on a yearly basis. The day began receiving yearly themes in 1996,
and has since been celebrated with themes like World Free of Violence
Against Women, Investing in Women and Girls, and this year's Planet 50-50
by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality, though many of the recognized
themes are just as evergreen as the need to celebrate the day itself.
The hundredth anniversary of International Women's Day took place in 2011,
an entire century after over a million Europeans in several countries came
together to campaign for women's rights. The day was celebrated by
President Barack Obama
<
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/08/remarks-first-lady-international-womens-day-reception>
when
he inaugurated March 2011 as Women's History Month, which is nationally
celebrated every year now.
International Women's Day is a national holiday and day off in the
following countries — Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women
only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macedonia (for women only), Madagascar (for women only),
Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal (for women
only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia — but not the United States. Maybe next
year?
Received on Tue Mar 08 2016 - 22:04:13 EST