The History of International Women’s Day

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We all know that March 8 Women’s Day is being celebrated all around the world. There are some controversies about this celebration though, as there seems to be no reason to create a specific gender day. Anyway, everything has its reason for existing, but many people do not know how this event began and what it really means, promotes or what its purpose is. ShBarcelona wants those of you who are interested in this topic, to know a little bit more, and that’s why today, we are diving into the history of this day and the reasons that it became a benchmark in the rights of women around the world.

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Women’s rights

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International Women’s Day is a celebration that takes place in most of the world. It is an event that involves women of all cultures, languages and economic and social status, which makes this event one of the widest and most cross-cutting in favor of equality and the vindication of women’s rights. International Women’s Day is intended for ordinary women, who struggle every day to assert their rights, in a world in which patriarchy has, more or less, been the social and institutional pattern in most of the countries. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata began a sexual strike against men to end the war; in the French Revolution the inhabitants of Paris manifested in Versailles to demand the end of women’s suffrage, under the slogan “freedom, equality and fraternity”. The idea of an international day for women emerged at the end of the 19th century, which was a convulsive century with a very important population growth, and which favored the rise of more radical and social ideas.

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The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has created a series of protocols, standards and parameters to assess the levels of equality and shortages in each country and region of the world. Over the years, the UN has promoted the participation of women on equal terms with men, to achieve sustainable development, peace, security and full respect for human rights. Although much progress has been made, the truth is that there are still many things to be done to make women’s empowerment and gender equality a reality in many parts of the world. Thus, in order to ensure that all women in the world have the same freedom and rights equivalent to men, International Women’s Day will continue to be celebrated on March 8. In Barcelona a series of activities will be organized, but they were not yet communicated at the date of writing this article. You can check the website of the Barcelona City Council to know what and where these activities will be.

What is your opinion on International Women’s Day?