CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY! - March 8, 2005

This is a day to recognize the courageous and persistent efforts of women world wide who struggle for women’s rights and work against war and violence. International Women’s Day is rooted in the multi-centuries old campaign of women to participate in society equally with men. The struggle continues!

The idea of an International Women’s Day (IWD) first arose in the early 1900’s when the industrial world was experiencing a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies.

A FEW HISTORICAL MOMENTS WHICH LED TOWARD RECOGNIZING THIS DATE
1909 In accordance with a declaration by the socialist party of America, the first National Woman’s Day was observed across the U.S.A. and women continued to celebrate it until 1913.

1910 The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women’s Day, international in character, to honor the movement for women’s rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. Women from 17 countries participated in the conference. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

1911 As a result of the decision in Copenhagen the previous year, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time, March 19, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Gathered in a large rally they demanded the right to vote and to hold public office, the right to work, to vocational training and to end discrimination on the job.

Less than a week later, on March 25, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of over 140 working girls, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants. Remembrance of this tragedy had a significant impact on labor legislation in the USA and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of IWD.

1913-1914 As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of WWI, Russian women observed their first IWD on the last Sunday of February, 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around March 8 women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.

OTHER SIGNIFICANT DATES
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is officially published, selling 300,000 copies the first year and awakening white northerner’s to the plight of enslaved black people.

1870 Julia Ward Howe writes the original Mother's Day Proclamation which said in part: "Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons will not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy,and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs....Disarm! Disarm!"  http://www3.edgenet.net/fcarpenter/howe.html

1872 Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists arrested for voting for Presidential election.

1913, March 10, death of Harriet Tubman, abolitionaist, famed “conductor” on underground railroad who rescued over 300 people returning to the south 19 times.

1917 Montana elected Jeanette Rankin, first woman to sit in U.S. House of Representatives. Rankin votes against WWI and WWII. She also leads marches against Viet Nam War.

1920 USA women win the right to vote. Thanks to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other strong women! This year we celebrate 85 years!

1930 South Africa grants the right to vote with racial discrimination:
 to white women in 1930; 1984 to colored and Indian women; and 1994 to black women.

1933 Brazil grants the right to vote to women.

1945 Japanese women granted the right to vote.

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights published.
Article One: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

2003 March 16, Rachel Corrie, 23 year old US activist, is murdered in Gaza Strip by US-made Israeli bulldozer while protesting destruction of Palestinian homes by Israeli Army.

2004 Illinois Senate and Congress pass approval of CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women), thus encouraging U.S. Congress to ratify this UN Convention.

2003-05 Women and men globally protest US invasion of Iraq.

2004 Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist wins NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.
Wangari is an ecologist and zoology professor who founded the Greenbelt Movement in 1977, a re-forestation project with women in Kenya.

ACTIONS
1. Treat yourself! Gather a few friends around the computer and watch brief (2-5 min.) online videos/slide shows of international women. See www.amnesty.org/actforwomen. click on the photo above “Women and War”; then click ‘Way Forward.” A menu shows 2 videos and a slide show.
2. Read stories of courage from those who actively work to promote the status of women from the National Women’s History Project web site. The 2005 theme is ‘Women Change America.” See www.nwhp.org
3. CEDAW, the UN Treaty, The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women is languishing in the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Contact Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) as Chair of this committee and demand ratification of this treaty by the Senate. Email: senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov or fax 202 228-0360.

PLEASE SEND A COPY OF YOUR EMAIL TO US AT bulletins@claret.org

4. Have dinner with other women, enjoy a cup of tea/coffee together and celebrate women world wide! Pray for all women especially those in zones of war and extreme poverty.
5. Do what you can to stop war and to end the violence which war perpetuates. Promote peace and nonviolence