INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

RMTnews :: march 2008 :: www.rmt.org.uk 16 International Women’s Day is celebrated across the globe to draw attention to women’s continued second-class citizenship and the need for equality. However, it is also celebrated by the very same governments and corporations that contribute to women’s unequal rights. So March 8 should be a day of protest each year rather than complacency. By the beginning of the last century, the relatively-young capitalist system had thrown millions of women in industrially-developing countries into factories, domestic service and other work. Many occupations were gender segregated, and “women’s work” was often in the most appalling sweatshops, with low pay, terrible safety standards, and long hours. But at least workers were together, rather than isolated in the home, so they were able to fight back. Women workers organised industrial disputes to win better conditions. Although women had become part of public life as workers, they were still excluded from public life as citizens – they did not have the vote. Women’s suffrage movements grew across Britain, Europe, America and elsewhere. It was from this storm of protest and action that International Women’s Day was born. UNITED NATIONS The United Nations designated 1975 ‘International Women’s Year’, then in 1977, passed Resolution 32/142 inviting each country to proclaim, in accordance with its historical and national traditions and customs, any day of the year as United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace. It has steered IWD away from its radical past, co-opting it into the political mainstream. Even corporations – such as Deloitte, HSBC and Aviva – now sponsor International Women’s Day, although I have found no evidence that they do so by increasing the wages of their lowest-paid women workers! They prefer celebrations such as the “leadership development sessions, career workshops and corporate citizenship events” organised by consultancy and outsourcing company Accenture. There is now a vast array of non-political events, respectable public presentations, celebrations of high-flying women, and events promoting women’s health, leisure and achievement. In some countries, Women’s Day is similar to Mothers’ Day. Although these may have given International Women’s Day a profile, and some may be quite worthwhile and enjoyable, they have taken focus away from working-class women’s grievances. Many IWD events are now a world away from the INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE Janine Booth looks at the history of International Women’s Day celebrated each year on March 8 FREEDOM: Thousands of women and members of social organisations take part in a march to mark International Women's Day in Mexico City last year, the banner says ‘freedom’.