Every year around the world, March 8th is cherished as international women’s day, respecting the struggle of women for equality and freedom.
The historical base of March 8 is the demonstration of woman workers of New York’s textile industry in March 8, 1857. The demonstration in protest to low wages for 12 hours of cumbersome work and other pressures against workers was harshly repressed. But by forming unions in the years after, woman laborers continued their protests and demands. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, women in industrial and developing countries entered the labor market. They were generally in poor working conditions with low wages and there was no chance of improvement in the prospect. Many laborer strikes in a number of main industrial centers such as Chicago, Philadelphia and New York took place in the beginning of the 20th century. These women went on strike for the right to vote, respectable wages, an end to cumbersome working conditions and an end to forced child labor. On March 8, 1908, thousands of woman workers in the sewing sector demonstrated for in favor of laws that supported child labor the right to vote for women in addition to their previous long time demands. In 1910, in the second socialist women conference, Clara Zetkin from Germany’s revolutionary movement suggested the announcement of March 8th as international women’s day for cherishing the memory of all the women who fought for equality, which was eventually approved by women from 17 countries that were present in the conference.
At the suggestion of the World Democratic Federation of Women, the United Nations marked March 8th as the International Women’s Day.. The United Nations announced its incentive of choosing March 8thas solidarity with the demonstrations of women labors in 1875 and 1991.
Although International Women’s Day was formed by a specific historical day, but it is a celebration to mark one and a half century of women’s struggle for equality and redeem that was carried out in different political or equality movements.