International Women's Day, a worldwide recognized holiday, is celebrated annually on the eighth day of March. In different countries, the essence of the holiday is somewhat different. In some regions, he pays tribute to the indomitable spirit of women in the struggle for equality and social rights, and in some, it has long lost its political color and has become just an excuse for men to express their love for the fair sex.
The idea of a women's social movement arose for the first time in the second half of the 19th century, and it received a significant impetus to development at the turn of the 19th-20th, when a period of militant ideas, an aggressive revision of the borders of the world, social upheavals, and a significant increase in population began in the industrially developed countries.
In 1857, on March 8, New York textile workers and seamstresses took to the streets to protest. Their demands included a ban on inhuman working conditions and increased wages. Police units were thrown against the demonstrators and brutally dispersed the demonstration. Two years later, again in March, the same textile workers formed their first trade union to defend the fundamental rights of working women.
In 1977, the UN adopted a resolution calling on all states to proclaim March 8 as International Women's Day. The countries of the former USSR and many others have declared this day a national holiday.
Another date, March 8, this time in 1908, is memorable in the United States. This is the so-called Day of Bread and Roses. Having gathered in the number of 15 thousand, women took to the streets of New York in an organized way, seeking suffrage, the same wages as men, reduced working hours, and also a ban on the use of child labor. Bread in the hands of the demonstrators symbolized social security, and roses - high living standards.
In 1910, an international conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, which brought together more than 100 women from 17 powers. All of them - including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament - represented the socialist organizations of their countries. It was this women's international that unanimously supported the German representative Clara Zetkin, who proposed establishing Women's Day around the world on March 8, in memory of the strike of New York textile workers.
At the same time, the conference participants decided that they would fight for women to obtain the right to work, study, vote, as well as the right to hold public office on an equal basis with men.
Interestingly, the logo of International Women's Day is made in purple and white - these are the colors of Venus, which is considered the patroness of women. It is the purple ribbons that famous and accomplished women - politicians, business women, teachers, doctors, journalists, athletes, actresses - wear around the world on March 8 when they participate in events dedicated to the advancement of women. These can be government initiatives, political rallies, women's conferences, or theatrical performances, handicraft fairs and fashion shows.
In Russia, International Women's Day began to be celebrated in 1913. About one and a half thousand people took part in the first celebration, which took place in St. Petersburg in the building of the Kalashnikovskaya grain exchange.
What matters is that women's voices are being voiced today against poverty and violence, wars and hunger, and many other violent trends in modern reality.
