International Women's Day

Every year on March 8, people celebrate International Women's Day (IWD), a day that serves as a focal point for the women's rights movement. Issues including reproductive rights, gender equality, and violence and abuse against women are highlighted during International Women's Day.IWD began in early 20th-century labor movements in North America and Europe, and it was fueled by the universal female suffrage movement.

The first documented instance was a "Women's Day" held in New York City on February 28, 1909, and sponsored by the Socialist Party of America. This prompted German delegates to the 1910 International Socialist Women's Conference to suggest that "a special Women's Day" be observed every year, but there would be no defined date; the ensuing year witnessed the first International Women's Day protests and celebrations throughout Europe.

The first known celebration of Women's Day, dubbed "National Woman's Day", took place in New York City on February 28, 1909. At Theresa Malkiel's suggestion, the Socialist Party of America arranged it. Some have asserted that International Women's Day honors a march by female garment workers in New York on March 8, 1857; however, scholars have characterized this as a fabrication meant to distance the holiday from its socialist beginnings.

An International Socialist Women's Conference was held in August 1910 in Copenhagen, Denmark, in advance of the Socialist Second International's general assembly. German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede, and others suggested creating an annual "Women's Day," though they did not specify a date for it. They were partly inspired by the American socialists. The 100 delegates, who came from 17 different nations, approved the plan as a means of advancing women's suffrage and other equal rights.

Over a million people celebrated the first International Women's Day on March 19, 1911, in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.There were 300 protests in Austria-Hungary alone, as women paraded down Vienna's Ringstrasse while holding banners commemorating the Paris Commune martyrs.Women demonstrated against sexism in the workplace and called for the right to vote and to hold public office throughout Europe.

Early American and European feminism

A change in the battle for women's rights was signaled by a number of events that took place before the rally in New York. The earliest movements in the West seeking equality in terms of wages, voting rights, and other basic problems emerged during the First Wave Feminism era, which spanned the mid-19th century to the 1920s.

After being turned down to speak at an anti-slavery convention, American women's rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention in New York as early as 1848.

Stanton was a well-known feminist in her own right, while Mott was an outspoken opponent of slavery. The Solitude of Self, a lecture she gave in 1892, outlined the reasons why women should be granted equal rights.

"The solitude and personal responsibility of her own unique life is the biggest reason for giving woman all the opportunity for higher education, for the complete development of her faculties.”

"Women must travel alone through life, regardless of how much men would like them to lean, be supported, and protected. To ensure their safety in an emergency, they should be somewhat knowledgeable about navigational laws. It doesn't matter if the lone traveler is a man or a woman; nature has given them equal gifts and allows them to fend for themselves in dangerous situations. If they aren't up to the challenge, they will both perish.

Socialist feminist movements have started to emerge in Europe as well.

A second International Conference of Working Women was convened in Copenhagen in 1910, according to the IWD website. The concept for an international women's day was proposed by a lady by the name of Clara Zetkin, who was the leader of the Social Democratic Party's "Women's Office" in Germany. She suggested that a Women's Day celebration be held annually on the same day in every nation to advocate for their needs.