Essay about International Women's Day

The desire to implement an International Women’s Day started in New York, february 1908, when millions of women protested through the whole city against their working conditions. It was celebrated for the first time in the U.S, february 1909, imposed by the Socialist Party of America. 

These actions took a lot of importance in Russia, 1917. The German and socialist Clara Zetkin established the universal suffrage at the International Conference of Working Women in 1910. Her idea was to spread this day through Europe. Russia established the International Women’s Day in 1913 but the atmosphere was unstable because they were exhausted due to war, a bunch of protests and there wasn’t enough food for everyone. Rochelle Ruthchild, historian and activist, tells about the differences between protests and their demonstrations. “Women were mostly the ones on the breadline, and were the core protesters”. “In fact, male revolutionaries like Trosky were upset at them, as these disobedient and misbehaving women were going out on this International Women’s Day, when they were meant to wait until May”, this refers to the annual worker’s protests. The participation in the protest grew considerably in all sectors. In 1917, in Russia, women demanded and achieved the right to vote in elections. 40,000 men and women fought for universal male suffrage. This action made Russia the first major power to establish suffrage legislation for women. The U.K and the U.S took as example Russia as it was a country that was progressing. In the 20th century, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom during World War I and the visit of the British suffragette Emily Pankhurst are some of the events that occurred. However, this day wasn't as powerful in the U.S as it was in other countries because of the Cold War tensions and its political associations with the Soviet Union and socialism. 

Even though this movement has made a lot of changes and it is very important, there are people and certain leaders in the U.S who would like to turn back time or wish that nothing of this happened. Of course, this will be happening forever until we obtain the same rights for everyone, until we obtain equality.