Today is International Woman's Day.. Started by Socialists

[Ichingcarpenter]

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
In 1869 British MP John Stuart Mill was the first person in Parliament to call for women's right to vote
. On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote.
Women in other countries did not enjoy this equality and campaigned for justice for many years.


In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen.
A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany)
tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there
should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands.
The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties,
working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament
, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

The very first International Women's Day was launched the following year by Clara Zetkin on 19 March (not 8 March)
. The date was chosen because on 19 March in the year of the 1848 revolution,
the Prussian king recognized for the first time the strength of the armed people and
gave way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many promise he made, which he later failed to keep,
was the introduction of votes for women.


Plans for the first International Women's Day demonstration were spread by word of mouth and in the press.
During the week before International Women's Day two journals appeared: The Vote for Women in Germany
and Women's Day in Austria.

Various articles were devoted to International Women's Day: 'Women and Parliament', '
The Working Women and Municipal Affairs', 'What Has the Housewife got to do with Politics?', etc.
The articles thoroughly analyzed the question of the equality of women in the government and in society.
All articles emphasized the same point that it was absolutely necessary to make parliament
more democratic by extending the franchise to women.

Success of the first International Women's Day in 1911 exceeded all expectation.
Meetings were organized everywhere in small towns and even the villages halls were packed
so full that male workers were asked to give up their places for women.

Men stayed at home with their children for a change, and their wives,
the captive housewives, went to meetings.
During the largest street demonstration of 30,000 women,
the police decided to remove the demonstrators' banners so the women workers
made a stand. In the scuffle that followed, bloodshed was averted only with the help
of the socialist deputies in Parliament.

In 1913 International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March and this day
has remained the global date for International Women's Day ever since.


http://www.internationalwomensday.com/first.asp


You go Girls!!!!!

[Book Lover]

1. Emily Davison

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/emily_wilding_davison.htm

Emily Davison became a natural follower of the Suffragettes. She took part in attacks on property. She became a leading member of the Suffragettes and was imprisoned and force-fed. On one occasion she barricaded herself in a prison cell to escape force-feeding. Her cell was flooded with ice cold water which drenched her while workmen broke down the cell door. Such treatment only made her even more determined.

...

Footage of Emily's death: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4N3yLBNCJE

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. From my understanding of History ... American women help make this happen

Thanks for the link.

Unfortunately America has lost its sense of history because I know it will not
be mentioned on your TV news today but its big in Europe still

[Greyhound]

3. K&R

[malaise]

4. We celebrate the day here in

Jamaica. Happy International Women's Day. :D

[onestepforward]

5. K&R

[Blue_Tires]

6. ttt