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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 assist in 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 decision
taken at Copenhagen the previous year, 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 the right to work, to
vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.
Less
than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took
the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and Jewish
immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the
United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were
invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.
1913-1914
As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of
World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the
last Sunday in February 1913. 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 their sisters.
1917
With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war,
Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and
peace". Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went
on anyway. The rest is history: Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate
and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic
Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on
8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.
1975
During International Women's Year, the United Nations
began celebrating 8 March as International Women's Day.
1977
In December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a
resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International
Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with
their historical and national traditions.
** Themes for International Women's
Day
IWD 2006: "Women in decision-making"
IWD 2005: "Gender Equality Beyond 2005:
Building a More Secure Future"
IWD 2004: "Women and HIV/AIDS"
IWD 2003: "Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goal"
IWD 2002: "Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunity"
IWD 2001: "Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflits"
IWD 2000: "Women Uniting for Peace"
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