Celebrated on March 8 every year, International Women’s Day is a day dedicated to honoring the achievements of women across the globe in the social, economic, cultural, and political spheres throughout history. It is typically a day for women from all different backgrounds and cultures to band together to show support for women’s rights and gender parity, and bring attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.
Gender parity is a statistical measure that compares women and men through their income, education, and work hours, among other points. This sociological metric helps researchers understand how society is progressing or regressing in specific areas. It’s also an important tool for policymakers striving towards gender equality.
International Women’s Day has a rich history with roots in the suffragist and labor movements — the first glimpse of it was in 1909 when the Socialist Party of America celebrated 15,000 women who protested long work hours, low pay, and the lack of voting rights in New York City.
The first International Women’s Day—or as it was first called, International Working Women’s Day—was celebrated with rallies in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, when a million women and men rallied in support of women’s rights on March 19, 1911.
A massive demonstration, on February 23, 1917 (March 8 in the West), led by Russian feminist Alexandra Kollontai, began a four-day strike for “bread and peace” in response to food rations and the death of over 2 million Russian soldiers in World War 1. The women recruited 50,000 strikers who grew to over 250,000 strikers. This February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution led to the czar’s abdication. The provisional government became the first government of a major power to grant women the right to vote as it tried to establish Democratic elections. The failures of the Provisional Government led to the October Revolution by the Communist Bolsheviks. Russia’s Communist Party declared Woman’s Day an official Soviet holiday in 1917.
Perhaps because of its connection with socialist and communist movements, Women’s Day did not gain traction in the U.S. until the advent of the women’s movement in the 1960s and 70s.
The United Nations General Assembly designated 1975 as International Women’s Year, declared 1976 –1985 as the United Nations Decade for Women and celebrated International Women’s Day for the first time. 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.
In 1978, the school district of Sonoma, California participated in Women’s History Week, an event designed around the week of March 8 (International Women’s Day). In 1979 a fifteen-day conference about women’s history was held at Sarah Lawrence College from July 13 until July 29, chaired by historian Gerda Lerner. It was co-sponsored by Sarah Lawrence College, the Women’s Action Alliance and the Smithsonian Institution. When its participants learned about the success of the Sonoma County’s Women’s History Week celebration, they decided to initiate similar celebrations within their own organizations, communities, and school districts. They also agreed to support an effort to secure a National Women’s History Week.
In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980, as National Women’s History Week.
You can read about some of our local “Women of History” in past articles on the Poolesville Seniors’ blog. Mayor Tolbert, the Honorable Connie Morella, Jane Sterns and Beulah Harper, Nina Honemond Clarke, Tina Clarke, Gwen Reese, the Edmondson Sisters, and Virginia Hall Goillot.