International Women’s Day is a commemoration and a call to action: pay attention to the flowers and chocolates

Women around the world called for equal pay, reproductive rights, education, justice, decision-making positions and other basic needs during commemoration rallies International Women’s Day this Friday.

Recognized officially by the United Nations in 1977, International Women’s Day is commemorated in different ways and to varying degrees in places around the world. The protests are often political and sometimes violent, and have their roots in women’s efforts to improve their rights as workers.

The demonstrations were scheduled for this Friday from Tokyo to Mexico Cityand this year’s global theme is “Inspiring inclusion.”

Here’s what to know about the global event on March 8:

What is International Women’s Day?

International Women’s Day is a worldwide commemoration (and a call to action) featuring demonstrations, mostly by women, around the world, ranging from combative protests to charity runs.

Some celebrate economic, social and political achievements of women, while others urge governments to ensure equal pay, access to healthcare, justice for victims of gender-based violence and education for girls.

It is an official holiday in more than 20 countriesincluding Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ukraine, Russia and Cuba, the only one in America.

As in other aspects of life, social media plays an important role on International Women’s Day, in particular by amplifying attention on demonstrations held in countries cwith repressive governments towards women and dissidence in general.

When was Women’s Day born and why is it commemorated on March 8?

Although the idea of ​​Women’s Day originated in the United States with the American Socialist Party in 1909, it was a German feminist who promoted a global commemoration at an international conference of socialist women held in 1910 in Copenhagen. The following year the day was remembered with demonstrations throughout Europe and, during the First World War, women used it to protest armed conflictwhich lasted from 1914 to 1918.

International Women’s Day is celebrated on the following March 8 a mass protest that occurred in Russia on February 23, 1917 and led to the country’s subsequent withdrawal from the war. At the time, Russia had not adopted the Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in 1582) and was still using the Julian calendar (created by Julius Caesar and still used by Orthodox churches for religious rites).

“February 23 in Russia, which It was March 8th in Western Europe, women took to the streets and protested for bread and peace,” said Kristen Ghodsee, professor and chair of Russian and Eastern European studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the protesters were widows, wives and mothers of dead men or wounded during the war.

“The authorities failed to stop them and then, once the men saw that the women were on the street, they abandoned them all workers began to unite to women”.

The UN has begun commemorating the date in 1975which was International Women’s Year, and its General Assembly officially recognized the day two years later.

Are chocolates and flowers welcome?

Depends of time and place.

Eastern European women wear I have been receiving flowers on March 8th for a long time and sometimes they even have the day off from work. But chocolates and sweets may seem degrading gesturesthat show a lack of understanding of the struggles that drive women to protest, particularly in regions where demonstrations are combative.

In Türkiye, last year women they disobeyed the official ban of the International Women’s Day march in Istanbul and protested for two hours before police used tear gas to disperse the crowd and arrest dozens of people.

And in Mexico City, dozens of people were injured during a demonstration on March 8, 2021, after protesters They will confront the police in the main square with stones, bottles, metal poles, spray paint and lit cans used as flamethrowers.

In the meantime, Internet companies have plenty of time They take advantage of International Women’s Day to sell divers, greeting cards, sticker packs, bags, risk games, cake toppers and countless other March 8-themed purple items.

The Internet also offers numerous guides for businesses to celebrate the occasion, from cupcakes and thank you emails for employees to product bundles and social media offers for current or future customers. However, companies had varying degrees of success with these initiatives.

In 2018, McDonald’s turned its golden arches into a “W” on its social media accounts and even on a store sign in California, a marketing strategy that It was criticized online as an empty gesture and which has generated claims against the company which, instead, improve the working conditions of workers.

What does the future hold for March 8th?

Ghodsee said commemorating International Women’s Day is now more important than ever, as women they have lost the progress made over the last centuryprimarily the 2022 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court From repeal the nation’s right to abortion, which put an end to the constitutional guarantees in force for almost 50 years.

“I think women all over the world, before (Donald) Trump became president – ​​when Hillary Clinton was running for president, Sheryl Sandberg was writing “Lean In” and it was all feminism all over again – we didn’t know how quickly “All this could happen taken away,” he said.

The American ruling on abortion has had repercussions across the European political landscape, forcing the issue back into public debate in some countries at a time when far-right nationalist parties are gaining influence.

France on Monday became the only country to explicitly guarantee abortion as a constitutional right, a historic move proposed by President Emmanuel Macron and hailed by women’s rights activists around the world.

Voting during an extraordinary joint session of the French parliament This drew a long round of applause among lawmakers.

“We have a moral debt to women,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told lawmakers ahead of Monday’s vote.