A Sentiment

God knew what He was doing when He sent a gentle breeze and brought a lovely butterfly to set my heart at ease. The happiness of your friendship and the gentleness of your words have touched my life in special ways and now I feel assured. Thank you for your loyalty and for reading everyday. I only hope you find things to make a happy day.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

International Women's Day

Today is the 100th Birthday of International Women's Day. International Women's Day is celebrated across the world on March 8th each year. The day is about celebrating the vital role women play in enhancing economic security for their families, communities and countries as a whole while recognising that significant barriers to achieving women's economic security and equality continue to exist. There are many interesting things to read on the web today. Today we should pay respect to the women who have been important in our lives and their struggles.
Here is a history of this day.... Balisha

1857- New York Lower East Side Female textile/garment workers staged a protest against 12 hour work days and poor working conditions. For female trade union members this began International Women’s Day (IWD).

1909-The first National Woman’s Day occurred on February 28th in the United States.

1910- The Copenhagen Initiative established a Women’s Day to honor the fight for women’s rights and universal suffrage. The day was approved unanimously by over 100 women from 17 countries. No fixed date had been chosen yet though.

1911-Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland held rallies for International Women’s Day for the first on March 19th.

1914-International Women’s Day became part of anti-war movement during World War I. Russian women observed their country’s first IWD on the last Sunday of February. Other places in Europe celebrated around March 8th by holding rallies and/or protesting the war.

1917-Again Russian women protested on IWD and four days later the Czar stepped down and the provisional government gave women the right to vote.

1975-was designated as ‘International Women’s Year‘ by the United Nations.

1978-The Education Task Force of Sonoma County in California began “Women’s History Week.” It was purposely chosen to occur along with IWD.

1987-A Congressional resolution made March Women’s History Month nationally.

Today- IWD continues to have its political roots, but is also a day to just take a moment to recognize and pay respect to the women in our lives.

IWD is now an official holiday in China, Angola, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and many other countries.

6 comments:

Pat said...

Great post...We Gals do have to stick together.

BrittArnhild said...

Happy Women´s Day Balisha.

Margie's Musings said...

You neglected to mention the terrible sacrifices women in America suffered while trying to get the vote. They were imprisoned, beat by their jailers, hung above the floor in their cells by their wrists, force fed when they refused to eat..and othe rindignities too bad to mention. Most of the women of the civilized world had the vote before America's women.

Men!

Balisha said...

This list is just telling about the beginning of International Women's Day. We could go on and on about women's rights and how we got the vote...etc.There is so much interesting information on the web about women's struggles. I hope we take this one day a year and remember all of the atrocities against women in the past and still in many countries around the world.

Tim said...

When is International Men's Day-Tim

Balisha said...

Hi Tim....Everyday is International Men's Day :)