ΗΜΕΡΑ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑΣ / WOMEN'S DAY

8 ΜΑΡΤΙΟΥ: ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΑ ΗΜΕΡΑ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑΣ















Στις 8 Μαρτίου του 1857 στη Νέα Υόρκη οι εργαζόμενες γυναίκες ντυμένες στα άσπρα, κάνουν απεργία με αίτημα την ίση αμοιβή με τους άνδρες. Η συγκέντρωση πνίγηκε στο αίμα αλλά ο δρόμος για ίσα δικαιώματα των δύο φύλων άνοιξε, τουλάχιστον στο δυτικό κόσμο.

Το 1910 στην Κοπεγχάγη η Clara Zetkin προτείνει η 8η Μαρτίου να καθιερωθεί ως παγκόσμια μέρα της γυναίκας. Από τότε γιορτάζεται κάθε χρόνο σε όλο τον πλανήτη είτε σε περιοχές όπου η γυναίκα είναι χειραφετημένη είτε σε περιοχές όπου ζει υπό καταπίεση.


ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΣ ΚΑΡΥΑΤΙΔΕΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΤΕΧΝΗ







Καρυάτιδες, Ερεχθειον (5ος αι. π.Χ.)







Rodin,
"The Fallen
Caryatid"
(1883)








8 MARCH: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

In 1869 British MP John Stuart Mill was the first person in Parliament to call for women's right to vote. On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. Women in other countries did not enjoy this equality and campaigned for justice for many years.

In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day.

The very first International Women's Day was launched the following year by Clara Zetkin on 19 March (not 8 March). Success of the first International Women's Day in 1911 exceeded all expectation.

Meetings were organized everywhere in small towns and even the villages halls were packed so full that male workers were asked to give up their places for women.

Men stayed at home with their children for a change, and their wives, the captive housewives, went to meetings.

During the largest street demonstration of 30,000 women, the police decided to remove the demonstrators' banners so the women workers made a stand. In the scuffle that followed, bloodshed was averted only with the help of the socialist deputies in Parliament.

In 1913 International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Wommen's Day ever since.

During International Women's Year in 1975, IWD was given official recognition by the United Nations and was taken up by many governments. International Women's Day is marked by a national holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

REUTERS WORLD NEWS
8 March 2010