It's International Women's Day!

| Friday March 9, 2007

Did you know it was recently International Women's Day? Most of us probably had no clue, which is too bad. AskPatty has done a nice little write up about it that we thought would interest you.

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. It all began in 1908, a time of great unrest and active campaigning by women demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on February 28, 1909. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913. At a Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen in 1910, an International Women's Day of no fixed date was proposed to honour the women's rights movement and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. Over 100 women from 17 countries unanimously agreed the proposal. Three of these women were later elected the first women to the Finnish parliament.

International Women's Day was honored the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. Read More...