International Women's Day 2022 Date: Women's Day is celebrated every year around the world on March 8. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock) International Women’s Day 2022 date: Women’s Day is celebrated every year around the world on March 8. This year, it falls on a Tuesday. As the name suggests, it is a day dedicated to women, a symbolic reminder of the historic journey they have taken globally to better their lives, and that while a lot has been achieved on that front, the journey is still long and more needs to be done.
Theme
According to UN Women, the theme for International Women’s Day, 2022 (IWD 2022) is ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’. It attempts to recognise the “contribution of women and girls around the world, who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, to build a more sustainable future for all”.
Additionally, internationalwomensday.com states that IWD 2022 campaign theme is ‘#BreakTheBias’. It intends to promote a “gender equal world”, which is “free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination”. “A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive”, and where “difference is valued and celebrated”.
History and significance
IWD has been celebrated for over a century now, but many people think of it purely as a feminist cause. Its roots, however, are found in the labour movement, wherein it was first organised in 1911 by the early 20th century Marxist from Germany Clara Zetkin.
International Women’s Day 2022 Date: IWD 2022 campaign theme is ‘#BreakTheBias’. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock) Zetkin was born in 1857 in Wiederau, where she trained as a teacher, and was associated with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) — one of the two major political parties in Germany. She participated in both labour movement and women’s movement.
It is said that in the 1880s, anti-socialist laws were enforced by German leader Otto von Bismarck, and Zetkin went into a ‘self-imposed exile’ in Switzerland and France. She wrote and distributed literature that was forbidden back then, and also met with leading socialists. Zetkin also played a significant role in the formation of the Socialist International.
When she returned to Germany, she became the editor of Die Gleichheit (‘Equality’) — SPD’s newspaper for women — from 1892 to 1917. In the SPD, Zetkin was closely associated with the far-left thinker and revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. In 1910 — three years after she became a co-founder of the International Socialist Women’s Congress — Zetkin proposed at a conference that Women’s Day be celebrated in every country on February 28.
A conference comprising 100 women from 17 countries, with unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs and female legislators unanimously approving the suggestion, and Women’s Day was observed for the first time in the year 1911.
But, in 1913, the date was changed to March 8, and it continues to be celebrated every year.
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