History of International women’s day (IWD)

History of International women’s day (IWD):

Hello all, welcome to Digital Diary’s special edition post, about “International women’s day”, which is celebrated on 8^th March every year. So let us know the history of women’s day celebrations.

international women's day

What is women’s day: It is a day dedicated to celebrating the cultural, social, political and potential achievements of women and a day to reflect on the issues that they still face globally. Every year, women’s day is celebrated with a theme. And this year (2020) theme is #EachforEqual

History: International Women's Day (IWD) has been observed since the early 1900s. from the 1900s a great discussion was occurring amongst women. The first step for the foundation of IWD was laid in the year 1908. Women's oppression and inequality were spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in the year 1908, demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights, 15,000 women marched in New York City. Keeping these demands in mind, in the year 1909, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman's Day (NWD). Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913. 

The idea of celebrating the women’s day internationally was first given by “Clara Zetkin”. In the year 1910, a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen, in this conference Clara Zetkin proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration of women’s day on the same day. This proposal was approved by over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament - greeted Clara Zetkin’s suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

Following the decision agreed in Copenhagen, the first international women’s day was celebrated in 1911 in the countries Austria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights. But, in the year 1975 United Nations started to conduct IWD officially.

Celebration on March 8: On the last Sunday of February, Russian women began a strike for "bread and peace" in response to the death of over 2 million Russian soldiers in World War 1. Opposed by political leaders, the women continued to strike until four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. The date the women's strike commenced was Sunday 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia. This day on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere was 8 March.

The great invention’s made by women:

When we talk about inventions, the names which we will get in our mind are, Thomas Edison or Graham bell or someone else. But, do you know women also made many inventions that changed the world. Let’s see some of them.

  Marie Curie – Theory of Radioactivity: she was the first person in history to win two Nobel Prizes and the only person to win twice in the multiple sciences. When she was 44, she laid out a theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium, and radium

Marie Curie

2       Grace Hopper - Queen of Code: Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist. he wrote the first compiler, which could translate computer instructions from English into machine language or ‘code.’ The term ‘Debugging’ in software applications was invented by Grace Hopper.  Up to age 75, She worked very hard for the development of the computer. Grace Hopper was a pioneer of computer programming, sometimes remembered as the ‘Queen of Code.’ 

Grace Hopper

3.       Mary Elizabeth Anderson - Windscreen wiper: Mary Anderson was the inventor of “Windscreen wiper” or “Glass wiper”. In winter 1903 she was visiting New York, while she was riding a streetcar, she observed that the driver repeatedly stopping the car and clearing the snow on the window by hand. As a solution to this problem, she invented a glass wiper made by rubber. That’s how the glass wiper came into existence. She got her patent rights in 1903.

Mary Andreson

4.       Maria Beasley - lifeboat:  Maria Beasley invented “life raft” or lifeboat”. In 1882 she decided that people should stop dying at sea. As a part of this, she invented a lifeboat. Now, thanks to Maria, thousands of lives have been saved by these boats.

lifeboat by Maria Beasley

5.       Dr. Shirley Jackson – caller ID and call waiting: Dr. Shirley Jackson had made so many breakthroughs in telecommunication research. She is the first black women to receive a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research made possible to invent Fiber optical cable, Fax Machines, Solar cells, etc. she also found the technology behind call waiting and Caller ID

Dr. Shirley Jackson

And so on…...

The list was so big that we can’t list all of them in one post. There were so many inventions made by women. Not only in science, in every aspect women are doing great and bringing so many revolutions. To all those hardworking women out there A Happy International women’s day from the Digital Diary Team

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