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Women's Day: a day of Women's empowerment

     On the 8th day March of every Year we celebrate International Women's Day  originally called International Working Women’s Day.  It is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

      It is Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc.

     The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:

     In the year, 1909, in accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913.

     In the year,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.

     In the year, 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.

     During the year,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.

     In the year, 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.

     Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women's Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights.

     The day is an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia,  Azerbaijan, Belarus,  Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only),  Cuba, 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.

     In Italy, to celebrate the day, men give yellow mimosas to women. Yellow mimosas and chocolate are also one of the most common March 8 presents in Russia and Albania.

     In many countries, such as In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, the custom of giving women flowers still prevails. Women also sometimes get gifts from their employers. Schoolchildren often bring gifts for their teachers, too.

In countries like Portugal groups of women usually celebrate on the night of 8 March in "women-only" dinners and parties.

     In India, International Women’s Day holds a lot of significance. Many celebrations are held during the day.

     In actual practice the day should be celebrated as a women’s empowerment and should not be deemed as feminist or discriminatory towards men because for centuries women were always kept behind the doors and away from the work of their own choice and were neglected by the male dominated society especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. Women are one of the pillars of this society. Society grows and runs with the simultaneous acts and deeds of both men and women. Women are equal in status to men. Both men and women are equal and two parts of the same coin and shall have the equal opportunity to the profession of her choice, cloth of her choice, education of her choice, marriage of her choice, qualification of her choice, freedom and liberty of her choice. Women should have equal respected and dignity as that of a man in every spheres of life, family and society.

 

(All the views expressed herein are of my personal views and are not meant to harm anybody)

 

Pronoy Kumar Ghose

Advocate

 

 References:

1http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/women/womday97.htm

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day

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