It was in the early 20th century when the initial sparks of a women’s day celebration were first witnessed around the world. A socialist party in New York supposedly celebrated the first ‘Woman’s Day’, which inspired similar events in Germany and Russia. Women at the time demanded shorter work hours, better pay, and even voting rights. Soon enough, the rest of the world followed suit.
The date ‘8th March’ got fixed as the International Women’s Day since Russia celebrated it on the last Saturday of February, albeit based on the Julian Calendar (it became March 8 once it was shifted to the Gregorian calendar).
The date stuck for more than a century now, and 8th March is officially celebrated as the International Women’s Day. While this day might look like a normal occasion to celebrate women’s accomplishments across all fields of life, it has had a much bigger impact in the world.
Spreading Awareness
While there is a fair argument that women must be celebrated on all days of the year, marking a specific date in the year highlights the event even further. It diverts the attention of the entire world towards women’s causes, their efforts, their role in society, and how they are continuously shaping the modern-day life. It brings lesser-known historical stories about women and their plight to the forefront. This concerted effort to highlight women’s contributions, both from the past and present, reaches places far and wide. People who were previously unaware of their achievements are learning about it and changing their opinions and perspective on women overall.
Take Dr. Purnima Sinha and Dr. Sipra Guha-Mukherjee for example. They were female scientists in a world where their efforts and contributions weren’t recognized by the Government or the people. Dr. Purnima Sinha became the first woman from Calcutta University to earn a PhD in Physics. She also translated Erwin Schrodinger’s works in Bengali and chronicled India’s folk music. Dr. Sipra Guha-Mukherjee made breakthroughs in agriculture and created haploid plants (plants with one chromosome).
Yet, they are largely unknown to the larger society. When publications like Brut India managed to share their story on International Women’s Day, the larger section of the people learned about them.
For the larger part of history, gender equality wasn’t the norm anywhere. As the society heads towards a more gender-neutral and gender-equal society, International Women’s Day plays a huge part in spearheading that purpose. It brings previously unheard stories of glory to the forefront, and people take note of it. As their perspective changes, so does their attitude towards women. Hence, slowly but steadily, women have occupied major positions in the workplace in most fields of work.
Shedding Light on Gender Disparities
While disparities in the workplace, and otherwise, have always remained between genders, International Women’s Day makes a sincere effort to bring an end to it. Stories from across the globe about disparities, pay gap, curbing of rights, and botched-up freedom, often make the news throughout the year. But they are scattered and interspersed with other stories that steal the limelight. 8th March puts a special emphasis on these stories and forces people in power to take appropriate measures.
Discussions on crucial issues like workplace equality, reproductive rights, and leadership representation are encouraged in the workplace.
It also provides a blueprint of how to build a better, more secure future for women and men in the workplace. A continuous and concerted effort to share more and more stories about women’s contributions leads to the persistent removal of bias, discrimination, and sexism from the world. It calls for a more progressive world, one that’s fairer and safer for women.
Successful Women Who Make 8th March Celebrations All the More Important
Despite its origins in the early 20th century, International Women’s Day on 8th March wasn’t officially recognized by the UN until 1975. Since then it became a globally accepted occasion. Soon enough, the Post feminism era began that ushered in several women in high-paying, high-positioned, and high-demand jobs.
In India, Arundhati Bhattacharya became the first female chairperson of SBI (State Bank of India) on 7th October 2013. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the founder of Biocon Limited, a ₹ 40,000 crore biotech company based in Bangalore. Roshni Nadar became the first woman to lead a listed IT company in India when she became the chairperson of HCL Technologies.
In sports, the current Indian women’s cricket team gets equal match fees as the men’s cricket team. Although this decision came from the BCCI very recently, it was years of effort and raising voices that led to this moment. Several other sectors have seen the rise of women in multitudes.
While there is still a long way to go, these efforts have brought about a steady change, one that is commemorated every year on 8th March.
Is International Women’s Day Celebration (March 8) an Important Step in Feminism or a Farce?
There is a large section of the society that believes that the celebration of International Women’s Day is absurd. Their notion isn’t born out of any antagonistic view towards women, but instead quite the opposite. They believe that such is the magnitude of women’s contributions that it cannot be contained nor celebrated in one single day. Therefore, as per them, celebrating one day for the entirety of women’s efforts becomes a ‘cheap-out’ from actually acknowledging their efforts in its deserved magnitude. However, there is an alternate view to this.
While it can be agreed upon that one day isn’t enough to celebrate women and womankind, designating a day for celebrating all of women’s achievements brings about a separate awareness towards it, as discussed above. International Women’s Day may not have tangibly made a difference in women’s lives. But it was definitely a right step in the direction of feminism. It not only made men take note of lesser-known stories about women, but younger women got inspired too. It encouraged them to take up their passionate fields of work that they previously wouldn’t have dared to do so. This was immensely impactful in the progress of women.
The impact of the International Women’s Day and the various stories that come out of it cannot be measured in figures. But it continues to shape generations of women and how society views them as a whole.
