March 8, International Women’s Day

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Why March 8?

On March 8, 1857, 40,000 textile workers started a strike in a textile factory in New York, USA, demanding better working conditions. However, as a result of the police attacking the workers and locking the workers in the factory and the fire that followed, the workers could not escape from the barricades set up in front of the factory, 129 women workers died there.

Clara Zetkin, one of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, at the women’s meeting of the Second International (International Socialist Women’s Conference) in Copenhagen, Denmark on 26-27 August 1910, in memory of the women workers who died in the textile factory fire on March 8, 1857, the “Internationaler Frauentag” (International Women’s Day) and the proposal was unanimously accepted.

However, the United Nations General Assembly accepted that March 8 should be commemorated as “International Women’s Day” on December 16, 1977. In the section on the history of the day on the website of the United Nations, it was not written that the celebration was held in memory of the workers who died in New York.

Today is March 8 …

Since the end of the 19th century, March 8 has been a day when women have demonstrated their determination to express their demands and aspirations and have acquired rights that cannot be underestimated until today. Women’s struggle for a more equal and livable world has had an echo and support in all segments of societies.

So, when women are still fighting for their rights, what is their place in today’s world?

Women in developing countries carry an average of 20 liters of water a day for 6 km.
Women make up 80% of the refugees.
Only 1% of the land in the world belongs to women.
The proportion of women in politics and business is quite low even in developed countries.
2/3 of more than 1 billion adults who are illiterate and without the right to education are women.
30% of university graduates in scientific and technical fields in OECD countries are women.
10% of the inventors in the USA are women.
14 trillion dollars of assets in the world belong to women.
Out of 206 recognized and unrecognized countries, more women set up a business in Japan and Peru alone than men.
21% of those who are the subject of the news or interviews are women.
Although 1/3 of the journalists are women, only 1% of the department chiefs, editors or bosses are women.
The highest gender inequality in the European Union is seen in Cyprus, Estonia and Slovakia, with a difference of approximately 25%.
New university graduates earn 20% less than men. This difference rises to 31% within 10 years.

These data obtained as a result of studies on inequality of men and women are unfortunately not even 1% of the inequality dimension.

According to the data obtained from a study of the BBC covering European countries;

About 1 out of every 10 people working as a senior officer, manager or deputy is a woman. In other words, while the ratio of women in the mentioned positions in 145 countries subject to research is 13%, the ratio of men is 87%.

While 76% of men work in these countries, only 32% of women work.

Even if every day is celebrated as women’s day, when this is the case in the world, you want to say, ‘what good will it be?’

As I write these lines, perhaps a woman in the world or in a corner of my country is being subjected to violence by her husband, and another woman is being harassed by a man she does not know at this time for walking on the street. Maybe tomorrow a woman will be mobbed by her boss, who does not know what it means to say a woman, and who is even aware that it is International Women’s Day …

Despite all these embarrassing facts, equality between women and men is fully achieved in every field, violence against women and sexual abuse are not reduced but completely over, the value of women is understood every day, not one day, above all, women’s own power; I wish a world where they believe, and realize what they can do when they want.

Happy 8th of March, International Women’s Day and all other days have “Women of the World” …