International Women’s Day is a global celebration every year on March 8. It is a day when women are recognized for their cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements. This year’s theme is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” which calls for climate action for women by women.
International Women’s Day grew out of the labor movement in 1908 when nearly 15,000 women marched in New York demanding better working hours, better pay, and the right to vote. One year later, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Women’s Day.
Clara Zetkin, a communist activist and advocate for women’s rights, had an idea for an International Conference of Working Women to be held in Copenhagen in 1910. She also suggested an international day for women. The first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. The United Nations officially recognized the day in 1975.
Initially, there was no designated date for Zetkin’s idea. It wasn’t until a wartime strike in 1917 when women demanded “bread and peace.” The government granted women the right to vote on the fourth day of the strike which began on March 8. This became the official date that International Women’s Day is celebrated.
Other themes for International Women’s Day this year, include #BreakTheBias. According to the International Women’s Day website, it is asking people to imagine “a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.”
Climate change, or global warming as it’s also called, is one of those topics that we hear about but find it difficult to apply in our daily lives. Each person you talk to probably has a different perspective about it. When I think about climate change, I think about it at it’s most basic level — all human beings deserve clean water, fresh air, nutritious food, and warm shelter. There are systems in place to help provide those things. For example, there are reservoirs to hold freshwater. We also grow crops in certain areas of the country that are best suited for them due to the temperature.
We understand that climate change makes it challenging to have these basics but, you may wonder what it all has to do with women.
Although climate change has a significant impact on us all, it’s impact on gender is different. Women’s vulnerability is much greater than men’s, primarily because they represent the majority of the world’s poor and are regularly more dependent on natural resources. Worldwide, women have less access than men to land, credit, technology, training, and services that increase their ability to adapt to climate change.
Women represent 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living in vulnerable conditions. In urban areas, 40 percent of the poorest households are headed by women. Women lead in the world’s food production, more than 50 percent, but they own less than 10 percent of the land.
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