International Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8, to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. The aim of the day is to spread the message of gender equality and promote a better society where there is no gender bias.
International Women’s Day is commemorated in a variety of ways worldwide; it is a public holiday in several countries, and observed socially or locally in others. The UN observes the holiday in connection with a particular issue, campaign, or theme in women’s rights. In some parts of the world, IWD still reflects its political origins, being marked by protests and calls for radical change; in other areas, particularly in the West, it is largely sociocultural and centered on a celebration of womanhood.
History
It is said that in the 1880s, anti-socialist laws were enforced by German leader Otto von Bismarck, and Zetkin went into a ‘self-imposed exile’ in Switzerland and France. She wrote and distributed literature that was forbidden back then, and also met with leading socialists. Zetkin also played a significant role in the formation of the Socialist International.
When she returned to Germany, she became the editor of Die Gleichheit (‘Equality’) — SPD’s newspaper for women — from 1892 to 1917. In the SPD, Zetkin was closely associated with the far-left thinker and revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. In 1910 — three years after she became a co-founder of the International Socialist Women’s Congress — Zetkin proposed at a conference that Women’s Day be celebrated in every country on February 28.
A conference comprising 100 women from 17 countries, with unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs and female legislators unanimously approving the suggestion, and Women’s Day was observed for the first time in the year 1911.
But, in 1913, the date was changed to March 8, and it continues to be celebrated every year.
