International Women’s Day: A Look Back

International Women’s Day: A Look Back

2014-03-17 

Women garment workers from New York City were at the front line of protests in 1909. Photo from the Socialist Worker website.

So many people from all walks of life now identify with the annual celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) , it is hard to believe that it all started with women working in factories more than a hundred years ago in countries where industrialisation began such as England, Russia and the United States. Even before the 1900s, workers in factories were labouring more than eighteen hours a day, had no rest days, dismissed once they got sick or injured, paid meagre salaries and often fell into debt and exploitation.

It was a time of collective awareness that saw the first public demonstrations for better working conditions. Women workers from garment, textile and needle factories were at the front line of these protests. Women factory workers in England began marching even earlier in the 1820s. Meanwhile, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire that claimed the lives of 146 young women shocked American society into realising that these unfortunate women had not even begun to enjoy their lives before their horrible deaths.

Soon a movement called “bread and roses” demanded decent working conditions that would allow women to enjoy the fruits of their income, be respected and have a full life. The “bread and roses” strikes involved thousands of immigrant women workers, as well as World War 1 widows. They were largely ignored by the male-dominated labour movement and public officials who were in collusion with the growing industrial business class, so much that women started organising themselves and held their own massive labour strikes.

From the same ranks came women who thought that in order to be taken seriously they should also take power through the vote. In war-time Russia, women protesting for ‘Bread and Peace’ one day in February which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar successfully achieved their right to vote.  In 1911 and 1912, European countries such as Germany, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland officiated women workers day while Russia made it an official working holiday after the October revolution but since 1965 declared it a non-working holiday.

Finally in 1977, a United Nations General Assembly resolution invited member States to mark International Women’s Day officially in their countries. Today over 100 countries celebrate IWD and March 8^th is a national holiday in  Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.

Today, women and men celebrate International Women’s Day all over the world in various ways. In this photo, young people from Bangladesh rode bicycles to show their support for women’s rights.,

Meanwhile, women continue to march in the streets hundred years on, in Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Thailand. Demands for decent wage and working conditions, shorter working hours, social and health services, recognition and respect are as real today as they were then. Justice for victims of violence and discrimination are still as elusive. There are still women who are migrants, widows, single mothers, and from ethnic and religious minorities, gravely disadvantaged and vulnerable to abuse.

However, remarkable progress in the area of women’s political and economic status, recognition and legislation of women’s rights have been made throughout the years. Women’s rights movements gave birth to others such as child rights, environment, peace and development rights. These gains have been achieved for us through painstaking and lifelong work of those who have struggled before us.

In Asia, International Women’s Day is observed on the eve of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community and the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals. It is everyone’s duty to continue this legacy of struggle for women’s equality and empowerment towards genuine development for all.

From the Diakonia Asia blog. 
Text by Niza Concepcion.
Photos by Socialist Worker and staff of Association of Development for Economic & Social Help (ADESH).