English - Activities - Travel the World - International Women's Day

International Women's Day is a feminist event which celebrates women's achievements as human right defenders of women's human rights and supports feminist struggles in the world, which means, all the struggle in support of women being considered human beings, not second-class human beings.

Nowhere in the world can women claim to have all the same rights and opportunities as men. In spite of the 1978 Constitution in Spain, one of the most progressist in the world, the Spanish Parliament had to pass a Law on Equality recently, in 2007, to make sure equality is achieved (Ley para la Igualdad Efectiva ).

We should remember that women have only started having rights in some countries in the 20th century.

In 1910, at a second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin (Social Democratic Party in Germany) made the proposal of an International Women's Day that could help women to press for their demands. The very first International Women's Day was held the following year on 19 March – not March 8. Plans for actions on this date were spread by word of mouth and in the press. Articles and speeches thoroughly analyzed the question of the equality of women in the government and in society. They emphasized the same point – that it was absolutely necessary to make Parliament more democratic by allowing women to vote. In Spain women achieved the right to vote and be elected in 1931, with the Second Republican Government.

In 1913 International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Women's Day ever since. During International Women's Year in 1975, IWD was given official recognition by the United Nations and was taken up by many governments.

Women as Second-Class Human Beings

• One out of every three women around the world has been subjected to violence by a man.
• The majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor are women – that is over a 70% of all the poor people.
• 80% of the world's 27 million refugees are women.
• Women do two-thirds of the world's work but receive only a ten percent of the world's income.
• Women own around a one percent of the world's land.
• Women are two-thirds of the 1 billion+ illiterate adults who have no access to basic education.

The Problem of Gendered Violence

Everywhere women continue to be subjected to violence by men because traditionally men have had a right over women's lives – women could not make any kind of decision and they could be punished by their fathers, husbands, brothers and even sons. Unfortunately, this is still true in most countries in the world. In Spain, the situation started changing with democracy, in the 1970s. In 2004 a law was passed against "gender violence". Spain is the first European country with a law that recognizes that the issue of violence also results from gender issues (Ley contra la violencia de género ). In Spain, a woman dies every week as a result of gender violence.

Related Links
Read the note at the end of this cloze test designed by Anastasia (Av2, 2008-2009) called "Male Abuse Being Ignored"

External Links
The Talking People Podcast special episode for March 8
IWD at the United Nations
International Women's Day
UNIFEM: Say No to Violence Against Women