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Women’s Day (IWD) is a holiday celebrated annually as a focal point in the women’s rights movement. IWD gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

The earliest version reported was a “Woman’s Day” organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York City on February 28, 1909. This inspired German delegates at the 1910 International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen to propose “a special Women’s Day” be organized annually, albeit with no set date; the following year saw the first demonstrations and commemorations of International Women’s Day across Europe. Vladimir Lenin declared March 8 as IWD in 1922 to honour the women’s role in 1917 Russian Revolution; it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and communist countries. The holiday became a mainstream global holiday following its promotion by the United Nations in 1977. 

International Women’s Day is a public holiday in several countries. The UN observes the holiday in connection with a particular issue, campaign, or theme in women’s rights.The earliest reported Women’s Day event, called “Woman’s Day”,was held on February 28, 1909, in New York City. It was organized by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of activist Theresa Malkiel. There have been claims that the day was commemorating a protest by women garment workers in New York on March 8, 1857, but researchers have described this as a myth. 

In August 1910, an International Socialist Women’s Conference was organized ahead of the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired in part by the American socialists, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede, and others proposed the establishment of an annual “Women’s Day”, although no date was specified. The 100 delegates, representing 17 countries, agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including women’s suffrage. 

The following year, on March 19, 1911, the first International Women’s Day was marked by over a million people in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. In Austria-Hungary alone, there were 300 demonstrations with women parading on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, carrying banners honoring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Across Europe, women demanded the right to vote and to hold public office, and protested against employment sex discrimination. 

IWD initially had no set date, though it was generally celebrated in late February or early March. Americans continued to observe “Woman’s Day” on the last Sunday in February, while Russia observed International Women’s Day for the first time in 1913, on the last Saturday in February (albeit based on the Julian calendar, as in the Gregorian calendar, the date was March 8). In 1914, International Women’s Day was held on March 8 for the first time in Germany, possibly because that date was a Sunday. 

As elsewhere, Germany’s observance was dedicated to women’s right to vote, which German women did not win until 1918.

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