'International women's what?'

Florence Radull | Friday March 14, 2014 15:59

 

The wording ‘woke up to find’ suggested to me that the person in question was neither previously aware of the day nor its significance to women’s rights but just stumbled upon the information quite by accident.

A quick survey in Gaborone led me to the conclusion that this is not a day that many people - especially men - are aware of. “International women’s what?” asked Vincent Dube a male friend in amazement when I asked him his take on the day.  “No idea.

Is it just another excuse for our women to demand gifts from us for celebrations we know nothing about in Africa... like Valentine’s Day?” he added in disgust. “Aaaaah… you mean Mother’s Day,” said a well-dressed Tiro Mooketsi.  “But it’s not May,” he quickly corrected himself, “actually I don’t have a clue what Women’s Day is all about”, he finally confessed.

After speaking to a few more ‘average Joes’ and getting similar responses I finally chanced upon Onkabetse Mosweu, a secondary school teacher in Tlokweng, who was knowledgeable about the day and its origins.

“It’s the commemoration of women’s struggles for equality and a celebration of their achievements,” Mosweu said, completely surprised that out of the 10 or so men I had spoken to he was the only one aware of the day and its significance.

“It’s also when women were given voting rights,” he added. After speaking to a few more clueless men I questioned a group of 30-something year-old women, lunching together at a restaurant.  All of them were aware of the day and were actually celebrating it though a few of them did not know its exact origins.

“It’s kind of like Mother’s Day, but all women are celebrated not only mothers,” said Kefhilwe Molapi one of the women. “It’s about celebrating how far we have come as women compared to the olden days when we were terribly oppressed by men,” she added.

“It’s also to celebrate when women in the US were finally allowed to vote,” piped up Tandy Chikova. “They fought for their rights and we in the developing world took our cue from them,” she added, before confirming that her husband was aware of the commemoration and had actually insisted she take the ‘day off’ from her home duties and spend time with her fellow women friends, hence the lunch.

International Women’s Day has been celebrated in the United States of America since the early 1900s, as the industrialised world experienced great turbulence and there was an increase in radical ideologies.

Women were becoming more vocal about standing up for their rights and were campaigning more openly against oppression in both the workplace and their homes.

In 1908, 15,000 women marched through the streets of New York demanding shorter hours of work, better pay and voting rights.

The following year on February 28, the first National Women’s Day was observed.In 1910 an International Women’s Conference was held in Finland in the city of Copenhagen.  The leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, Clara Zetkin proposed the idea of an annual women’s day commemoration to press for their demands.

The conference, which had over 100 representatives from 17 different countries, unanimously approved the proposal and International Women’s Day (IWD) was born.  In 1914, the commemoration date was set as March 8.

In 1975 during International Women’s Year the United Nations celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 and two years later the UNs General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace, to be observed by member states on any day of their choosing.  Countries like South Africa instead celebrate National Women’s Day on August 9.

Since its inception IWD has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration in both developed and developing countries. It is even an official holiday in countries such as China (though women only), Russia, Afghanistan, Uganda and Zambia, just to name a few.

Even though the new millennium has witnessed significant changes and huge attitudinal shifts in society concerning women’s rights and their liberation there are still areas in which the ‘war’ has not been won. 

We acknowledge that there is greater equality in legislative rights, more women in positions of power and an increased mass of women in impressive roles in every aspect of life. 

We now boast of women presidents/prime ministers, women astronauts, fighter pilots and more. Women definitely can now make more choices about their own futures, whether to follow a career path or start a family or even do both.  Despite these gains the unfortunate fact is that in the workplace women are still not paid equally to their male counterparts and their presence is still lagging behind in areas of business and politics. To top it all a global scale women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of the men.

However, due to the strides that have been made the tone and nature of IWD has shifted in the last few years from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives.

To this end every March 8, global corporations, businesses and individuals come together worldwide to show their support for womenfolk.

A network of diverse activities ranging from political rallies, conferences, cultural events, theatric performances and fashion parades are used as mediums to spread the message.  Global entities like Google have even been known to change its logo on its search pages on the day, in support of women.

So all of us should make a difference from here on and strive to make everyday International Women’s Day.

As the feminist, activist, author and journalist Gloria Steinem said: “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist not to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”