Happy Women’s Day 2025! Why the world celebrates the day on March 8

Happy Women’s Day 2025! Why the world celebrates the day on March 8

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, March 8, 2025: Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day (IWD) is observed to honor women’s accomplishments in a variety of disciplines and advance gender equality globally. It is also a day to appreciate the invaluable roles women play as mothers, sisters, wives, coworkers, and friends.
 
International Women’s Day offers a platform for talking about the problems women confront, the struggles they encounter every day, and the fight to secure their rights in a number of areas, including labor, education, and political participation.

 
 
This day serves as a reminder to recognise and cherish women’s agency and autonomy, to make society safer, and to eradicate prejudice and discrimination, particularly against women. People are busy getting ready for the celebration, but most are unaware of the significance of March 8th as International Women’s Day.

International women’s day: Why March 8?

The origins of the date March 8 can be found in Russian history. Under the Julian calendar, Russian women protested against World War I on February 23, 1913 (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar used elsewhere). This became a benchmark for Women’s Day rallies around the world.

 
On February 23, 1917, Russian women protested again, calling for an end to the war, food shortages, and Czar Nicholas II’s rule. According to historian Rochelle Ruthchild, these "disobedient women" first irritated male revolutionaries like Leon Trotsky by planning protests ahead of the scheduled May Day (Workers’ Day) rallies.

Nonetheless, the Russian Revolution was sparked in part by these demonstrations. In a few days, the Czar was overthrown, a communist regime was established, and Russian women were granted the right to vote. In the United States, women of color did not obtain the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but white women were granted the right to vote in 1920.

International women’s day: The Origin

Copenhagen hosted the Second International Conference of Working Women in 1910. International Women’s Day, a worldwide celebration of women’s demands for equal rights, was suggested by German socialist Clara Zetkin, head of the Social Democratic Party’s Women’s Office.

 With more than 100 women from 17 different nations attending the conference, the plan was approved. At IWD protests held around Europe in 1911, more than a million people demonstrated for the rights to work, vote, get training, run for public office, and be free from discrimination.
 
Zetkin, who was well-known for her revolutionary activities, thought that the protection of women’s rights depended on workers’ movements. She was later referred to as the "grandmother of communism" by the Manchester Guardian.
 
In honor of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, the Barack Obama administration designated March as Women’s History Month in 2011.