By Emily Caulkett-
International Women’s Day is being celebrated today to commemorate and honour women’s accomplishments, raise awareness about gender disparities and discrimination, as well as promote global support for women
Women have marked the annual event on 8 March in different ways, all aimed towards establishing change.
Clara Zetkin founded International Women’s Day in 1910CORBIS / HULTON DEUTSCH
On 28 February 1909. The then-active Socialist Party of America celebrated the first National Woman’s Day in commemoration of the 15,000 women who protested in New York against harsh working conditions and lesser wages.
In 1910, Clara Zetkin, a women’s rights advocate and the leader of Germany’s Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party, proposed the idea of a global International Women’s Day.
On 19 March 1911, the first International Women’s Day was held, with more than 1 million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland participating in the event
The UN has been the major sponsor of the annual event since 1975, when it recognised the important event and began celebrating it, encouraging more countries to recognize “acts of courage and resolve by ordinary women who have played an outstanding role in the history of their countries and communities.”
International Women’s Day seeks to remind the world of the need to pursue dignity and justice for women and to promote gender equality. In some countries, International Women’s Day is observed as a national holiday.
IWD is recognized as an official national holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Belarus, Cambodia, Cuba, Georgia, Laos, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russia, Uganda, Ukraine and Vietnam.
In certain countries like Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Uzbekistan, Women’s Day has been combined with Mother’s Day, a merger to highlight the importance of women as mothers.
In China, many women are given a half-day off work, while the Italian Festa della Donna is celebrated by the giving of mimosa blossoms.
Women in Russia commemorated the day that year by going on strike for ‘bread and peace’ in order to protest World War I and campaign for gender equality
Last year, the theme for IWD was #Breakthebias, which highlighted the issues women face due to gender bias.
This year, the International Women’s Day website has stated that the annual event is to #EmbraceEquity. As the website states, 2023 focuses on how gender equity needs to be part of every society’s DNA: “It’s critical to understand the difference between equity and equality. The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.”
The UN’s theme, which is ‘DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality’, aiming to to make people aware of the importance and contribution of digital technology in unveiling issues of gender inequality and discrimination.
Only a couple of days ago, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned in a moving speech at a U.N. Security Council meeting that sexual abuse, a lack of educational and employment opportunities and the rollback of reproductive rights have pushed the goal of gender equality “300 years away
The UN estimates that women’s lack of access to the online world will cause a $1.5 trillion loss to gross domestic product of low and middle-income countries by 2025 if action isn’t taken.
“From the earliest days of computing to the present age of virtual reality and artificial intelligence, women have made untold contributions to the digital world in which we increasingly live,” the UN stated. “Their accomplishments have been against all odds, in a field that has historically neither welcomed nor appreciated them.”
In a male dominated world, women are often undermined and treated as second class citizens, one of the main reasons there has been a big push for equality in gender pay.
Women are the gateway to life and therefore deserve the highest level of respect and treatment, one of the most important reasons to show them utmost respect.
Women endure nine months of pain during pregnancy, giving birth to the same group of men who often forget from whence they came. Cherishing women is a must in every decent society, understanding their emotional needs and resisting the temptation to dominate or exploit them .
That is why Scotland’s recent consultation aimed at developing a new law for misogyny is very important, to ensure bullish men who cause women an unjustifiable level of alarm and distress, are punished by the law fairly.
It must be the duty of men in high places to ensure they provide the necessary safeguards for women, and it is equally important that women also fight for equal treatment on a continuous basis, where it is evidenced to be in short or inadequate supply.
Teaching about respect and equal treatment of women needs to start from schools, and Britain must take the lead in establishing those useful ethics.