Power of woman

LALITA SRIDHAR

MARCH 8 is celebrated as International Women's Day. You might ask why women need a day devoted exclusively to themselves. Because there was (and is) so much discrimination against women in traditionally patriarchal societies across the world. And, unless they got together and spoke up for equal rights, they would have remained victims of grave injustices. From female infanticide to lower wages, from denial of education to dowry rituals, from widows being ostracised to physical violence - and these are only some of the issues - women face many problems simply because they are women.

The International Women's Day commemorates the fight for one such right - the right for women to vote. Before that fateful day in 1917, suffrage (or the right to vote and choose a democratically elected government) was not universal like it is now.

At that time, the First World War had claimed the lives of two million Russian soldiers. Strife had made life a misery for all common men - and women. The Russian women went on strike for "bread and peace". Their political leaders did not like the timing of the strike but the women went ahead nonetheless. They rewrote history in the process. In four days the Czar was forced to give up his throne and the Government which came in its place gave women the right to vote. This achievement came about on February 23 - Julian calendar, which the Russians were using back then. But it was equivalent to March 8 on the Gregorian calendar used by everyone elsewhere. So it was that the March 8 became an international celebration - women across the world, otherwise divided by politics, geography, race and religion, became united in their common fight for equal rights.

Although March 8 is now synonymous with the International Women's Day (it is a public holiday in many countries), it was not always that way. This historical event began nine decades ago when, in 1909, the Socialist Party of America organised the first National Women's Day which American women continued to observe on the last Sunday of every February. The following year the Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen gave it an international character. By 1911 massive rallies were being organised across countries in Europe where over a million men and women participated and drew attention to not just the demand for universal suffrage but additional issues such as the right to hold political office, to vocational training, to work and to end discrimination on the job. Such yearly rallies grew in number and popularity as women expressed solidarity to a sisterhood which knew no boundaries.

The legitimacy of their demand was underlined when the United Nations joined the cause of equal rights for women. In 1945, the Charter of the United Nations was signed in San Francisco and it became the first international agreement which proclaimed gender equality as a fundamental human right. Some day it is hoped that the International Women's Day celebrates not just a war but the winning of all its battles.

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