You are here

    • You are here:
    • Home > Latest News > BBC Wales Celebrates History of Women's Day

BBC Wales Celebrates History of Women's Day

01/04/2024

On Sunday 3rd March, the kick off of International Women's WeekBBC Radio Wales, which is the English language public service network for Wales, broadcast a history of the celebration of women's contributions and achievements.  The origins of the event lie in the early twentieth century working class, left and progressive movements.  The earliest version reported was a "Women's Day" organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York City on February 28, 1909.  In August 1910, an International Socialist Women's Conference was organized ahead of the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen.  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".  The following year, on March 19, 1911, the first International Women's Day was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.  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. Concurrently, there was a march in London in support of women's suffrage, during which Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.  The day was subsequently claimed by the authoritarian communist regimes that took power in Russia and other places in Eastern Europe and Central Asia after 1918.  But in the late nineteen sixties, second wave feminism began to take an interest in the event in the West.  The day re-emerged as a day of activism, and is sometimes known in Europe as the "Women's International Day of Struggle". In the 1970s and 1980s, women's groups were joined by leftists and labor organizations in calling for equal pay, equal economic opportunity, equal legal rights, reproductive rights, subsidized child care, and the prevention of violence against women.  The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day in 1975, which had been proclaimed the International Women's Year. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as an official UN holiday for women's rights and world peace.  International Women's Day still has the power to confound and challenge people in authority, as is evidenced by the attempts at religious fundamentalists of all stripes to crack down on celebrations.  Despite the efforts of a minority of transphobic feminists, the mainstream of International Women's Day celebrations include women of colour, transwomen and lesbian women and their contributions.  Credit: Additional information drawn from the feminism portal at Wikipedia.  

history
feminism
International Women's Day
LGBTQIA History
Women's History
LGBTQIA Community Activism
Transwomen
Lesbian Women
Queer Women
Lesbian Activism
Lesbian Activists
Trans Inclusive Feminism
Trans Identities
Radical History
Progressive Politics
Progressive History
Radicalism
Socialism
Communism
Anarchism

Our Supporting Stations

BCfm - Our home station. Broadcasting across Bristol on 93.2fm
Gastonbury FM - Broadcasting across Glastonbury on 107.1fm
Bradley Stoke Radio - covering the Bradley Stoke area of Bristol on 103.4fm
Bath Sound - Making a noise about music, events and culture in Bath
Frome FM - covering Frome on 96.6fm
Thornbury FM - Streaming online from Thornbury near Bristol
Wave Radio - Streaming online from Weston Super Mare
Trans Radio UK - Online trans focused radio
The Global Voice - Radio For All!
Medway Pride Radio - for the Rainbow Community & Beyond
KTCR - Connecting Communities
Base Radio
Sanctity of Sound