International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day was first organised by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of a Theresa Malkiel who came to New York aged 17 in 1891, as a refugee fleeing anti-Semitic violence in Russia and 18 years later she founder Women’s Day. She was forced to provide for herself, finding work as a dressmaker in the exploitative garment industry, working in dangerously overcrowded factories and 65-hour working weeks on paltry wages. The fall out of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the inauguration of Donald Trump which sparked unprecedented action by Feminist groups, with millions of women taking to the street around the world to protest the new president and the rise of the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns and Hollywood’s red carpet protests all combined to make this a landmark year in the fight for gender equality, will come to a head on International Women’s Day – a celebration of the achievements of women around the world and a call for gender equality.
In 1908, when 15, 000 women marched through the New York City demanding voting rights, better pay and shorter working hours, which led to in 1910, Clara Zetkin of the “ Women’s office” for the Social Democratic Party in Germany became the first person to table the idea of an International Women’s Day. In 1911, more than a million people rallied in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland for a women’s rights to vote and work without discrimination. Since 1913, International Women’s Day has taken place each year on 8th March but was only recognised by the UN in 1975. Only 7.8 per cent of the proportion of countries with a female head of government.
The Polish Physicist Marie Curie (1867-1934), whose investigations led to the discovery of polonium and radium and the development of X-rays, was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman to earn a modern University doctorate in Europe.
In California McDonald flips its golden arches upside down from an “M” to a “W” in celebration of International Women’s Day. Patricia Williams, the Franchisee of a Lynwood, California, MacDonald’s flipped her restaurant sign in order to honour women everywhere.
Mc Donald’s will actually turn its logo upside down on all its digital channels, such as Twitter and Instagram on Thursday 8th March 2018.
Laxmi Agarwal, an acid attack survivor and TV host who speaks for the rights of women said her scars are a reminder of the narrow-minded approach of the society, but her determination to live keeps her motivated every day. “As an acid attack survivor in India, it was and it is a challenge to start everything from zero, as it’s difficult to concentrate on anything when a part of your body is still burning from inside” said Agarwal who was a guest at a fashion show held in Vivianna Mall, Mumbai and sensitised people to stop such crime.