International Women's Day: From Union Strikes to Social Activism
At the turn of the last century, International Women’s Day was marked with strikes, mass demonstrations, peace activism and, at least once, a revolution. Today, as we celebrate the progress women have made, the flare of activism for women’s rights is fading as gender equality takes a backseat to issues of security, conflict resolution and economic hardship in the parts of the world that most need women's contribution.
In 1910, the Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen established an International Women’s Day to push for women’s suffrage with the unanimous approval of a conference of a 100 women representing unions, socialist parties and working women's clubs from 17 countries and including the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. In the following year, March 19 was observed as the first International Women’s Day. A million men and women in parts of western Europe joined rallies demanding suffrage for women, cheering for women’s right to work and receive vocational training, and calling for an end to discrimination on the job.
Soon, World War I engulfed the world. Like in most wars, women paid a significant price in fights they had not started for power they had not shared at the time. And so, in 1913 and 1914, International Women’s Day became an occasion for peace rallies and activism to end the war.
With more women forced into the labour market, less food on the table and the war wreaking havoc at the existing patriarchal social order, Russia’s International Women’s Day in 1917 turned into a full-fledged revolution. The “Bread and Peace” protests women started in February of that year soon attracted more and more of the public and drove Czar Nicholas II to abdicate thus ushering in the first socialist republic in Russian history.
Today, bread and peace are ever as scarce in many parts of the Arab Region. Women are not only the most vulnerable group as conflicts rage through the region; they are also an explicit target of a new wave of armed radicalism.
This year, International Women’s Day focused on stereotypes and social change as cultural events marked the occasion across the region calling on governments and civil society to pledge more commitments to gender equality in the hopes of bringing gender equality to the place it deserves at the top of the region’s list of priorities.
This year, International Women’s Day was meant to remind all of the things that drove International Women’s Day social and political action all those years ago: women are at the heart of solutions, their struggle is central to social change and their activism has already changed the world.
Learn more about the history of International Women's Day here.
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