Islamabad (Web Desk/Agencies): International Women's Day is being celebrated across the world including Pakistan today (Friday) to recognize the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
The theme of the day this year is “invest in women,” to accelerate progress.”
A number of functions and events have been organized in connection with the day.
In a message on the International Women’s Day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the government would continue to take steps for ensuring equal rights for women and to provide them opportunities of education and jobs.
“Today is the day to recognize the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and to provide them equal opportunities for their effective role in building the society,” he said.
PM Shehbaz promised that the government will continue to take steps for equitable rights of women, their protection and for provision of equal opportunities of education and progress.
Historical background of International Women's Day
According to the University of Chicago website for women's programmes, the move for the International Women's Day started in 1907, when 15,000 women workers in the textile industry walked in a march through New York, demanding shorter work hours, fair pay and lending their voice to the already growing clamour for suffrage for women. The demonstrators also commemorated police brutality on a similar women workers' demonstration in 1857.
On February 28, 1909, the first national Woman's Day was celebrated in the United States of America. Novelist and social reformist Charlotte Perkins Gilman addressed a gathering in which she made the stirring claim, "It is true that a woman's duty is centered in her home and motherhood but home should mean the whole country."
While women gained prominence in political arenas, it was the World Wars that gave the day its present form. Wars were largely considered men's domain and in the tension-ridden atmosphere of the days preceding World War I, Russia saw some of its biggest all-women campaigns for peace.
As the World War I looked to end and the Russian Revolution was set to begin in 1917, women in Russia led a massive demonstration under feminist leader Alexandra Kollontai, on the last Sunday in February on the Soviet calendar. The day is 8th March according to the Gregorian calendar. In 1922, Lenin officially designated it as Women's Day.
By 1975, the 8th March date had gained popularity enough for the United Nations to designate it as International Women's Day. Two years later, the UN's General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a "United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national tradition."
Significance of Women's Day
International Women's Day is one of the most widely celebrated holidays in the world. With no religious or regional connotations defining it, the day is universally accepted as one where women of all race, colour, nationality and age are celebrated.
There is a public holiday today in Russia, China, Vietnam and Bulgaria, where the women are considered as symbol of ‘struggle’.