Women's International Day

by Oscar Mellers



We have recently had Women's International Day. Why? 

Women's International Day was begun in 1977, on 8th March. 1975 had been declared the International Women's Year by United Nations General Assembly, which then invited member states to proclaim 8th March as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace. This reflected the feminist movement's increasing visibility and activism in the 1970s. 

In the early twentieth century and in previous centuries, women and men had been treated very differently, with women unable to vote and with it being very difficult for women to have employment beyond staying at home and looking after the children; most careers and educational opportunities were denied them. 

In the early 1900s, in the USA and European countries in particular, the Suffragette movement came to prominence, fighting for women's right to vote. Their activism ranged from lobbying politicians to civil disobedience (which anticipated the actions of Martin Luther King's civil rights movement half a century later), including chaining themselves to fences and even, in the case of Emily Davidson, throwing herself in front of the King's horse at the Ascot races to raise attention to the cause of women's voting rights. 


When the First World War started, women were needed to help with the war effort so, they went to work in factories and offices; this caused a significant shift in women's employment and social status, which influenced public opinion and helped lead to the fact that by 1928, across the UK, women had equal voting rights.


Women even now are said to have unequal pay, despite the movement the Suffragettes started! The genders are mostly equal in Western society now and we will hopefully achieve full equality in the coming years.

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