Detailed Information about International Women's Day & Its Importance

International women's Day is celebrated every year on March 8th as a mark of respect, love and appreciation to all the women in the world. Women form a significant part of this world and everything is incomplete without them. Historically women have always been subjected to all sorts of discrimination at various levels in life and have always been victimised and treated less equally than that of men. However with the advent of modernity women have proved their importance in different spheres of life and proved themselves beyond doubt. Society has now started to recognise their contribution and importance and have devised various ways to honour them and recognise their contribution. International Women's Day is one such among them. This day has political and socialist flavour but it mainly started as a political event in the west as part of their effort to free themselves from the bondages of the past and embrace modernity. One way of doing so was to treat at par the woman who was always considered inferior to men and subjected to all sorts of discrimination.

The tradition of celebrating International Women's Day started from 28th February 1909 in the United States of America. It was on the basis of the declaration made by the Socialist Party of America who organised an International Women's Conference in 1910. The German leaders, both socialist and communists seconded the thought and agreed to celebrate international Women's day to provide equal rights to women. In the year 1911, International Women's Day was observed for the first time in countries like Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and Germany. Demonstrations and processions were organised in various countries and women began to demand right to vote and also the right to hold high public office and also protested against discrimation on the basis of sex in various fields of life, most importantly employment. In Russia it was celebrated for the first time in the year 1913 on the last Sunday in February as per they Julian calendar. In 1917 demonstration were held all over the country as part of its celebrations on the last Sunday of February which fell on March 8th as per the Gregorian calendar. This is how March 8th became the official date for the celebrations of this festival.

Today women have made great progress in different fields of life. They are nowhere behind men in any sphere. Hence this day is observed to celebrate their achievements and at the same time to create awareness about their discriminated position and status in society inspite of all the advancement of modernity. Women in many places continue to be discriminated because of various factors like religions and its personal laws, ancient belief and customs, traditions etc. In its present stage the United Nations play a very important in its celebrations and observations all over the world. Each year it decides on a particular theme or issue that concerns women and work towards addressing them. The national government of different countries, members of civil society and NGO all work together to address various issues concerning women.