International Women's Day: why is it celebrated on March 8?

This March 8 marks Women’s Day worldwide to remember the fight for equality, recognition and effective exercise of their rights.

It is celebrated on International Women’s Day this March 8. Like every year, this Tuesday thousands of women will take to the streets to, among other things, continue the fight for equality, in addition to the recognition and effective exercise of their rights.

International Women’s Day: why is it celebrated on March 8?

International Women’s Day is commemorated because March 8, 1908 was marked in the history of work and the union struggle throughout the world after 129 women died in a fire at the Cotton factory in New York, United States, after declaring a permanent strike at their workplace.

International Women’s Day: what was the conflict that gave rise to this celebration?

The strike that day was aimed at reducing the working day to 10 hours and a salary equal to that received by men who did the same activities. The factory was closed so that the workers could deconcentrate, but those who were inside the building died.

On May 3 of that year, an act was held for Women’s Day in Chicago, a preamble for February 28, 1909, in New York, to commemorate for the first time the “National Women’s Day”.

International Women’s Day: the story of how it was born

Finally, in 1910, the second International Conference of Socialist Women took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The specific reason for that meeting was universal suffrage for all women, and by motion Clara Zetkin, leader of the “uprising of 20,000”, officially proclaimed March 8 as International Working Women’s Dayin tribute to the women who fell in the 1908 strike.

In 1977, The General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) officially designated March 8 as International Women’s Day. Then, in 2011, the centenary of the celebration was celebrated, with the premise of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

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