International Women’s Day was started more than 100 years ago. Its idea was also of a woman, whose name was Clara Zetkin. Clara was a Marxist thinker and activist, but she was also active on the question of women’s rights.

In 1910 an international conference of women was held in Copenhagen. For the first time in this conference she suggested to celebrate International Women’s Day. About 100 women from 17 countries were present in that conference. All of them supported Clara’s suggestion.

Firstly in 1911, International Women’s Day was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19. In 1914, in Germany it was decided to transfer International Women’s Day to March 8, the day was dedicated to women’s right to vote, which the German women did not win until 1918 and it has been celebrated on that day ever since.  There is an interesting incident associated with celebrating the Women’s Day on March 8. Actually when Clara spoke of celebrating Women’s Day, then she did not give a day or date. During the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Russian women demanded bread and peace.

Due to the pressure of women’s strike, Emperor Nicholas was forced to leave the post. As a result of this incident, the interim government gave local women the right to vote. At that time, the Julian calendar was used in Russia. The day the women started this strike, the date was 23 February. According to the Gregorian calendar this day was March 8 and since then, International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8th.Technically this year we are celebrating 107th International Women’s Day

In 1975, Women’s Day was officially recognized when the United Nations started celebrating it annually with a theme. The first theme of International Women’s Day was ‘Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future’. The theme for International Women’s Day 2019 is Balance for Better.

  International Women’s Day, women, women’s rights