International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8
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On March 8, women around the world are celebrated for their contribution to society. That’s because this date is officially recognised as ‘International Women’s Day’.
This acknowledgement is largely down to one woman, Clara Zetkin, who was deeply involved in politics for most of her adult life. She was considered to be a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and, most of all, advocate for women’s rights.
This was demonstrated by her role as the editor of the SDP women’s newspaper Die Gleichheit (Equality) between 1891 and 1917. In addition, she undertook the role of leader of the newly founded ‘Women’s Office’ at the SDP in 1907.
Who invented Women’s Day?
In fact, this latter role led to her participation in the second International Conference of Working Women, which took place in Copenhagen in 1910. This is a very poignant event in history because it is where the idea for a ‘women’s day’ was first proposed. Zetkin put forward the notion that there should be a specific day on which women are celebrated every year in every country.
More than 100 women from 17 countries attended that momentous conference. Collectively, they represented unions, socialist parties, and working women’s clubs, and even included the first three women ever to be elected to the Finnish parliament. They wholeheartedly supported the proposal, and International Women’s Day was founded.
While no specific date was chosen, International Women’s Day was honoured for the first time on March 19 2011, with Austria (Austro-Hungary), Denmark, Germany and Switzerland participating.
