March 8th Greetings!

[Guest guest]

March 8 is International Women's Day. A day set aside to celebrate

the historic accomplishments of women. But, International Women's

Day is not just about successes. It is a day to remember ordinary

women — women who have played a role as makers of history either

directly or indirectly — and remembering women who fought for

equality and succeeded in fields that have been male strongholds.

This struggle for equality and recognition is not new.

 

In ancient Greece in Lysistrata, women staged a strike against men

to end war. During the French Revolution, the women in Paris,

demanding "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" marched on Versailles

to claim women's suffrage. World War I saw two million Russian

soldiers dead, and many millions wounded. The women were forced off

the farms and into the St. Petersburg factories to support the

failing war effort. After three years of struggle, they began to

protest and riot. Tired and hungry, their battle cry was "Bread,

Land, Peace!" International Women's Day prompted over 90,000 workers

to strike and the army at Petrograd to rebel.

 

Today women's groups the world over mark the occasion. The day is

commemorated in the United Nations and in some countries, is a

national holiday. The Charter of the United Nations was signed in

San Francisco in 1945. It was the first international agreement to

proclaim gender equality as a fundamental right.Women across the

world, divided by continents, culture, religion, economic and

political differences, come together to celebrate this day as the

climax of decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and

development.

 

So how did this movement gather strength? At the turn of the 20th

Century, women in many industrial countries were entering the work

force. They were employed mainly in the textile and manufacturing

industry and in domestic services. Their working conditions were

dismal and their wages low. This was a time when trade unions were

coming up and there were many industrial disputes, even among the

women workers who did not belong to any union. Women realised the

political restrictions laid against them and began to campaign for

the right to vote.

 

In the U.S. women trade unionists and professional women were

campaigning for women's voting rights and also for a Women's trade

Union League to help organise women in paid work.

 

In 1908, on the last Sunday in February, socialist women in the U.S.

initiated the first Women's Day when women marched through New York

city demanding shorter working hours, better pay, voting rights and

an end to child labour. Their slogan was "Bread and Roses". Bread

was a symbol of economic security and roses a better quality of

life. The next year saw U.S. women garment workers stage a strike.

Almost 30,000 shirtwaist makers fought through 13 cold winter weeks

for better pay and working conditions.

 

In India the women's movement can be traced to the pre-Independence

time when social reform and independence took priority. Working with

reformers like Raja Ram Mohun Roy and others they addressed issues

like sati, child marriage, allowing widows to remarry, and education

for women. In 1920, the All India Women's Conference was set up.

 

However the zeal shown by these pioneering women was not kept up by

their successors. The mid-1970s saw a renewal of spirit, and a

document titled "Towards Equality" brought out by the Committee on

the Status of Women revealed that women's position in society had

not changed significantly.

 

Towards the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, women's

groups were set up in many cities in India. They addressed issues of

rape, domestic violence, and personal law, and also fought for new

women-sensitive laws or amendment of existing laws that did not give

women a fair deal.

 

The giving of dowry was another major issue that women's groups

fought against. Today with heightened awareness and public support

more and more women are voicing their resentment against this unfair

practice.

 

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said, "You can tell the condition of a

nation by looking at the status of its women." Going by these words,

there is an answer to the poverty and malnutrition we see around us.

 

NIMI KURIAN

 

Source: The Hindu, Chennai

URL: http://www.hindu.com/yw/2004/03/06/stories/2004030600030100.htm