International Women’s Day: How It Came to Be

The International Women’s Day is celebrated globally on the 8^th of March every year. Events are usually held in order to continue raising awareness about the struggles that women face in their daily lives around the world. But how did it first start?

In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City protesting their long working hours, their low pays, and the fact that they didn’t have the right to vote. A year later, it was declared the National Woman’s Day by the Socialist Party of America.

In 1910, Clara Zetkin suggested making the day international at the International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. The women attending the conference agreed on her suggestion and that was it. The next year, it was celebrated in multiple countries.

This year’s celebration would be the 110^th celebration of International Women’s Day since it started. It wasn’t until 1975 when the United Nations made it official by adopting the first theme “Celebrating the past, planning for the future”.

The colors associated with IWD are purple, green, and white. Each color signifying a specific principle. For example, purple signifies justice and dignity; principles that the IWD fights for. Green symbolizes hope; a principle that must remain with us in our fight. Finally, white represents purity despite it being a controversial concept. The colors originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union of the UK in 1908.

Every year, there is a new theme adopted by the UN. This year’s theme is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. This theme was chosen in light of the struggles of nations to handle the COVID pandemic and how certain women leaders were able to handle it better than other leaders.