Guest Author - Sandy Mullins

March 8 is another one of those interesting days celebrated worldwide. It is International Women’s Day. In many countries it is a national holiday. Most important, it is a day when women regardless of ethnic, language, culture, politics, or national boundaries can come together and celebrate the long road leading to equality, justice, and peace.

The history of International Women’s Day goes back historically through the centuries to ancient Greece, when the women initiated a strike to end war and forward to the French Revolution. It took on more steam during the turn of the century.

In 1909, the first National Women’s Day was observed on February 28, 1909 in the United States by the Socialist Party of America. A year later in Copenhagen it became more international when the Socialist International Conference of 1910, where more than 100 women from 17 countries unanimously approved it in honor of women’s rights and suffrage for women. In 1911 at the next conference of the Socialist International in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland had more than one million women and men attending rallies. Two years later, a peace movement became a major part of the rallies and Russian women celebrated their first International Women’s Day. Four years later, in 1917 with more than two million Russians dead from World War II, Russian women came together to strike for “bread and peace.” Four days later the Czar abdicated his throne and Russian women were granted the right to vote.

In 1945, the Charter of United Nations was signed in San Francisco, California and the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality a fundamental human right. Since then, the United Nations has four directions for the advancement of women: legal measures, assistance to disadvantage groups, training and research, and increasing public opinion and international action.

Equality of men and women is a major principal of the Baha’i Faith. For more information on either International Women’s Day or the Baha’i Faith, please click on the links below.

United Nations International Women’s Day 2006 (offsite link)

For more information on the Baha’i Faith:Baha'i Links