International Women’s Day
On March 8th Romania marks International women’s day
Roxana Vasile, 08.03.2024, 13:50
The entire world has celebrated International Women’s Day for over a century now.
In 1908, 15 thousand women from the textile industry participated in a march in New York campaigning for shorter hours, better pay and the right to voting. A year later, the Socialist Party in America declared February 28th, the first National Women’s Day. The idea to transform this day in an international event came in 1910 at an international conference of the working women hosted by Copenhagen. The initiative enjoyed success, so that the Women’s Day was celebrated outside USA for the first time in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
The United Nations Organisation started marking the event on March 8, during the International Women’s Year in 1975. Three years later, in 1977, the UN General Assembly made the day official attaching it a specific thematic every year. The first theme in 1996 was ”celebrating past, planning the future”. The chosen theme this year is “Invest in women, accelerate progress”. In other words, marked at the beginning of spring, the International Women’s Day is not about flowers, gifts, shows, exhibitions, conferences or parties, which are plentiful including here in Romania! It is a manifesto-day, an occasion to recognize the impact that women have in society. From activists and leaders to mothers, colleagues and friends, women have contributed to the construction of society and the improvement of life. Unfortunately statistics confirm that they continue to remain a vulnerable category, and the issue of gender equality hasn’t been entirely solved yet. Women are still being discriminated against in terms of salaries, access to education and career opportunities. They are also victims of violence and sexual abuse.
“Many happy returns and a beautiful spring” Romania’s Social-Democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu wished the Romanian women, while the Senate president, Liberal Nicolae Ciuca in a message on the Women’s Day wrote: “A civilized prosperous society is that in which every woman has the possibility to follow her dreams and objectives in an equitable, just and inclusionary environment. And our duty is to ensure this environment. We must continue the policies, which promote the equality of chances and which are combating discrimination and violence against women.”
And because we are speaking about equality of chances and non-discrimination, we must also mention that on November 19th we are celebrating the International Men’s Day.
(bill)
