Hilary Clinton had once said that Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in this world. These lines by Clinton are so true in itself as from ages women are dominated by men in many countries and so to display gender equality and unity of women every year International Women’s day is celebrated on 8th March in every corner of the globe. It is a day to acknowledge the achievements of women in social, political, cultural fields. Some countries have a national holiday on this day while some countries have half working days for women. In many countries this day is celebrated by giving flowers to women and social gatherings and programmes are arranged for women’s day.
HISTORY
We know that such a day exists but many don’t know the history behind it. It all started when around 15000 women marched through the streets of New York demanding for shorter working hours, better pay and right to vote. There was a thought of celebrating such a day to symbolize women power at that time but the idea to make this day International came from a woman in Germany named Clara Zetkin . She put forth this idea of celebrating International Women’s day worldwide at the International conference of working women held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Still after this Clara’s idea had no fixed date. Finally, a day was formalised when certain women in Russia went on a strike for bread and peace and that day was 8th of March and from then this day is marked as International Women’s Day Worldwide.
Today, there is no job in this world that a women can’t do .She is a scientist, a doctor also a truck driver and an army officer. She is working in all fields at par with men. Definitely the world has progressed a lot and we are trying to create this world a better place to live for women but still we hear cases where girl infants are killed, rape cases have increased and abuse of women still continues at many places. Women have always been good at multitasking they are capable of managing the household chores and also their careers outside .Also, it is a women who has to suffer four days every month and not men, she continues to work even at that time without complaining. She has a massive contribution in the progress of a nation and so she deserves the respect and appreciation from the society for her work. Being a woman is a tough job in itself, she has to make sacrifices in life always for others. Sometimes in the form of a mother, in form of a daughter , a sister or a wife. So International Women’s Day is a celebration of being a woman.
Many women from history and also around us inspire us everyday. Some of the living examples of great women are Malala Yousafzai , the girl who took the shots of bullet on her for the sake that each and every girl has the right to education. Another example is Mary Kom , inspite of coming from a very small town in Assam and also entering a male dominated sport like Boxing she managed to qualify for Olympics and win a bronze medal for the country. Kamala Harris has proved herself by being the first female Vice President of United States. These women are a source of inspiration for all of us and International Women’s Day is celebrated to honour all such women and each and every woman who struggles daily to make a mark for herself.
There are various themes decided every year for Women’s Day like this year’s theme was # Choose to Challenge and the last year’s 2020 theme was # Each for Equal. These themes are decided upon different social issues women face in their everyday life. Each and every person needs to understand the importance of Women’s Day as it is a woman who bears all the pain to create a man. She is the actual creator of this human race and because of her the world is still evolving so rather than trying to demotivate and bring her down we should give her wings to fly and allow her to chase her dreams. International Women’s Day also tries to convey the same message to each and every woman and to tell her that there are no set paths for her to follow, instead she is free to pave her own road.
International Women’s Day is celebrated to showcase women power, freedom of women but this day will be celebrated in its true sense only when every woman from whichever part of the globe she is gets the right to education, right to pursue whatever she likes, right to wear whatever she loves and right to raise her voice against whatever is wrong only then we could not only celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March but we would celebrate everyday as Women’s Day.
By Sukhada Wadodkar, Navi Mumbai
