History
The history of IWD is a history of taking action.
The Inspiration for IWD
IWD was inspired by a mass meeting on women's suffrage called by the New York City Social Democratic Women's Society in 1908. The American Socialist Party held national Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1909.
Mother of German IWD
Socialist Clara Zetkin, an extraordinary feminist who spent her lifetime committed to the advancement of women, organised the creation of IWD at a conference in 1910.
First IWD
The first formal IWD was the result of a resolution formally adopted by the International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1910. More than 100 delegates from 17 nations came together on the eve of the International Socialist Conference. The resolution to adopt IWD was unanimous.
The Dates
The first IWD was held on 19 March 1911. About a million women and men participated in Denmark, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This date was chosen by German women to commemorate the day in 1848 when the Prussian king promised women the vote.
The use of the date March 8 has continued since 1918. It is the anniversary of an IWD demonstration for "bread and peace" by Russian women in St Petersburg in 1917. The demonstration by textile workers turned into riots, four days later the Tsar was forced to abdicate and the provisional government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.
United Nations Recognition
The General Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution in 1977 inviting each country to proclaim, in accordance with its historical and national traditions, any day of the year as United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace
The idea of the Women’s Directory came as a result of a previous event called ‘Women Into Public Life’. When the event was being arranged it had been recognised that there was no one source of information that provided details on the women’s groups that existed within the Borough.
It was therefore felt that such a source of information was needed to be able to identify these groups not only for the purpose of marketing and publicity but also to provide a link and enable more networking.
The Directory was produced by targeting known women's groups within the Borough as well as issuing press articles inviting groups to contact us. A questionnaire was used to gather the information from the groups to be used in the directory.
If you are a woman's group or run a service that provides a key service to women and would like to be entered in the directory then please complete the attached questionnaire.
