Women’s Day
By Toader Rebeca
In our society, every day is a man’s day, but 8th March is a day dedicated to recognition for women.
Who would’ve thought that even the most powerful people in the world owe their success to a woman-the woman who raised and taught them everything they needed to know?
Intenational Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911 in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland where over one million people started a campaign for women’s rights such as: voting, working and education access. Since then, a lot of things have changed even if there are still a lot of improvements to make.
Women around the world come together on this day and they use their voices to raise the awareness about the things that they have been struggling with for many decade: gender equality, justice and peace. Some of the best examples of women who got to be heard are: Parisa Portaherian- a woman who scores soccer matches in Iran, where women are not allowed to be; Rahmalia Aufa Yazid-a 24 year-old freelancer of a clothing line which combines Muslim and Japanese fashion and Greta Thunberg- the 16 year-old girl who has skipped classes every Friday just to sit outside the Sweden’s parliament to demand act on climate change. These young women contribute everyday on solving society’s worst problems. So what is stopping you for making the world a better place? Go outside and see what you can do to change the world!
“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”
By Hasim Amir
If you think that men are the only ones that did something for the world we know today, you are wrong! Women played and are still playing a great role in the growth and development of the society and in making it an advanced and modern society.
Men didn’t have to fight for their rights, instead women had to fight for every right they have now. Their lack of physical power and authority does not make them inferior to men. For decades, women have made great accomplishments in history, but it wasn’t always this way. Even further back in history, women were forbidden to vote or even obtain an education! Although women were making great public strides by the late 20th century, they still did remarkable things behind the scenes before that time. If we take a look in the social history, we discover that the first poem written down, which has survived to the present day, was written by a woman called Enheduanna, very interesting given that in later times women were discouraged from writing and even from learning to read. In the Celtic culture of France, women fought as warriors alongside their men. What they may have lacked in physical strength, they are said to have made up for in the fierceness of their attacks. Boudicca, a British Celtic queen who fought against the Roman invaders of her country is a prime example of how a woman at that time could be a political and military leader.
Across Europe, women could not vote, were strongly discouraged from owning a business and had many fewer property rights than men. It is only really in the twentieth century that women have made such gains in equality that it is nothing short of revolutionary. Women's groups such as the Suffragettes campaigned successfully for women to be granted the right to vote, in most countries this had happened by 1930. The two world wars showed that women could take men's place in factories, that they could work outside the home as well as within it and that they could contribute to the economy. Even Romania had lots of brave women in history. For example, Elena Teodoroiu. She fought as a soldier, was promoted and was congratulated by King Ferdinand. The first female aviator to break the World Record in 1931 for female parachute jumping at 6,000 metres altitude was Smaranda Braescu. She was also the first European pilot to get a pilot licence in the United States. Eugenia Reuss-Ianculescu was a feminist activist in Romania and has founded the Female Emancipation organization in 1911. She supported modifications in law to help women, she supported equal pay for women and access for women to diverse professions to which they were denied. The first gymnast to receive a 10-grade in the history of gymnastics was Romanian Nadia Comaneci. She achieved this in 1976 at the Montreal Olympic games. Now she is one of the most well-known gymnasts women in the world and is still admired for her performance. And the list goes on.
Without these brave and courageous women nothing would have changed. Only through suffering and tears did they manage to change the future for the other generations and it is our mission to go with further progress.
Why do we celebrate women’s day?
By Sandu Ana
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of men talking about Women’s Day. Opinions were different from person to person, but I noticed that many of them had one thing in common, which is the question: “We celebrate Women’s Day, but why nobody cares so much about Men’s Day?”
Since antiquity, the woman has been considered as the beautiful sex, and the male as the strong sex. Basically, the man was somehow considered superior. For many years, women have lived without rights, been treated immorally, and were seen as children factories. Their lives were sad and insignificant.
It is ironic that, in the 19th century, the West wanted freedom and equality for all people, but apparently the woman didn’t make it into the category of "people". They were categorized according to how well they performed as housewives or mothers. However, some women wanted to prove that they also deserve to be treated on an equal footing. At that time, people considered working at the printing house a damning job, especially if they were part of the high society. Many noblemen stayed away from it. The noblemen’s wives took advantage of the opportunity and started to translate books and other materials (the first translation made by a Romanian woman appeared in 1835, when Catinca Sâmboteanu translated the work of Alain-Rene Lesage). Many other women began to translate foreign works and were slowly being taken seriously by the intellectual society of the country.
Even though the translation phenomenon was successful, it was not enough. The educated women dealing with translations were not supported by the others. The majority of the noblemen's wives were concerned with everything that was new and fashionable (cooking recipes, French novels, foreign languages) and most of them did not give any sign that they wanted to become an active force in the society. They were observers who took over the trends and implemented them.
I believe that the most interesting situation at that time was widowhood. The widows suddenly woke up alone in front of a bunch of problems and things they could no longer share with a man. Their life was strange: they had no husband, but they had more individual freedom and they could make their own decisions, but on the other hand, they were much more vulnerable and considered dangerous to society (the world believed that in the absence of the man, women were regaining their instincts and evil notions). Women who have inherited a store or business suffered too as , at that time, a woman in a boss's position was not seen well, and this problem continues to happen today. For the first time in the history of Romania, women were entitled to vote in 1938. Slowly, they were getting better seen and their opinion started to matter.
Summing up all the above, women have had to endure and struggle to gain their rights and to be heard. Men had them all since the beginning. So, I believe that 8th March is referring at women’s victory and their fight for freedom and independence and that is exactly why people usually tend to care more about Women’s day than Men’s Day.
International Women’s Day
By Tudor Oana
International Women’s Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. When women on all continents, divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
International Women’s Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the century- old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men.
The idea of an International Women’s Day first arose at the turn of the 20th century. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events;
1909: In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Women’s Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that Month till 1913.
1910: The socialist International’, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women’s Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women’s rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries. No fixed date was selected for the observance.
1911: Because of the decision taken at Copenhagen in the previous year, international Women’s Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria. Denmark , Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.
1913: As part of the peace movement brewing on the eye of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday of February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe. On or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sister.
1917: With two million Russian soldiers dead in the war, their women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for “bread and peace”. Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women continued to strike. The rest is history: four days later, the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar.
Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women’s rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women’s rights.
Women community though equal to men in population, it is a concern to note that, yet in this modern sophisticated world, she is treated as the second citizens or subordinates to men. Though various efforts are being made to improve the status of women. They have not taken their maximum use and remain backward.
Women do not have an equal status with men. Serious efforts are being made throughout the world and various schemes programmes have been launched to minimize the gender inequality. Even then the gender bias exists and it varies from country to country and even within a country.
In the second half of the 20th century, countries like USA, France and Hungary have 2.9%, 3.8% and 5.4% illiterate women respectively. The figures for India are 60.7% , Turkey 83.3% Iraq 95.8% and Algeria 98.2%. of the 100 million children world wide between the ages of 6 and 11 who do not attend school, 70% are girls. Of the one million illiterate adults an estimated two third are women.
Presently, women produce 50% of the world’s food supply, account for 60% of working force and contribute upto 30% of the official labour force but receive only 10% of the world economy and more surprisingly own less than 1% of world’s real estate. In Nepal, women work 21 more hours each week than men, and in India 12 hours. In Kenya 8 to 14 year old girls, spend 5 hours more on household chores than boys.
The gender inequality is an obstacle for development. A strategy to remove or at least to reduce inequality is very essential.
In recent years, the empowerment of women is recognized globally as a key element to achieve progress in all areas. In the last twenty- five years, there has been a global efforts with a strong support from the United Nations to understand the discrimination and restore the status of women. The United Nations General Assembly declared the International Year of Women in 1975 followed by the International Women’s Decade.
Women have largely remained backward in the advances of science and technology. Various macro indicator related to their education, employment, health and participation in economic activities attest that gender inequalities and women’s vulnerability stand stark, despite numerous initiatives.
Women's Day
By Popescu Adnana
International Women’s Day is a worldwide event that celebrates women’s achievements which has been recognised each year on March 8.It has all started in 1909 when an estimated 15,000 women marched in New York City demanding fair wages, labor standards and guaranteed voting rights ,ironically with what Katherine Hepburn said once"If you obey all the rules,you miss all the fun" and she might have been right.This wasn't only an act of courage which we should all thank to for our today's freedom as women,but the first step on the social scale improvement as feminin gender representatives too.Since then , women have been taking the will to fight against all the stereotypes which are assumed to or based on the woman's body such as "suited works for women","woman's place in society" mostly because they are biologically not as strong as the male representatives.Fortunately, in history, we have a lot of examples of "strong" women who left their mark on the society with their astonishing traits like wisdom , patience , flexibility and the social skills.
BalanceforBetter is the theme for this year's International Women's Day.The 2019 initiative is aimed at gender equality, a greater awareness of discrimination and a celebration of women's achievements, according to the International Women's Day website:
"It's a time to reflect on the progress for women and call for ways to address the unfinished business in working toward equality," said Rachel Vogelstein, a board member at the National Women's History Museum.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
By Karl Lily
Women are considered to be sensitive, weak and that’s why they need men’s protection, in order to be successful. I partially disagree with this and I think that women are even more powerful than men. Their quick thinking and their power of hard work make them special.
The evolution of feminism has changed a lot and women seem to rule the world. They are well-organized, responsible and hard working. Even tough men would mock at women’s role in society, they have proved that they can be great leaders, wonderful politicians or even presidents, or why not, powerful queens.
Moreover, women have been great doctors, like Marie Curie or other great women in the field of sport, such as Nadia Comaneci, Simona Halep.
Not a long time ago, women were not allowed to own properties, to practise sport or to go to school. Sadly, a woman was men’s property and men had the right to do everything they wanted to her. In the worst case they could kill her and nobody said anything. This was his right. In our times, in some small countries this is still practised. Luckily, in the most countries things have changed and women are more powerful than ever.
To sum up, I’m glad I haven’t faced those times and I am delighted to represent the WOMAN, who is beautiful and unique.
International Woman’s Day
by Stefan Bianca
I think everyone celebrated Woman’s Day at least once. But not everyone knows what we actually celebrate… Most of us think that on 8th of March we celebrate all the mothers, but this is not true. This day represents empowering women, being set up to promote their rights and equality with men. In some places, it is a day of protest, in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood.
Every country has a different way to celebrate this day. In Romania, men of all ages are giving the women different things, such as flowers, chocolate, romantic dinners, but in other countries like Mexico, women wake up with the mariachi arrangements that sing them under the window the “Las Mananitas” anniversary song. In Italy, on March 8 meetings are held on the assertion of women's rights, their safety at work, and health. Men in Italy are giving women yellow mimosa on March 8th. Yellow mimosa and chocolate bits are frequently offered to women in Russia and Albania on March 8.
In Romania, Mother's Day has been declared a public holiday since 2010 and is celebrated on the first Sunday of May. In Romania and Bulgaria, the customs before the fall of Communism were preserved, when on 8 March, on Mother's Day, the children made gifts to their mothers, grandmothers and teachers.
Women’s Day and Rights
By Naderi Far Hassan
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8th of March every year. And its an important celebration for women’s rights. Women’s rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide, and formed the basis for the women rights movement in the nineteenth century and feminist movement during the 20th century.
The history of the celebration dates back to the 8th of March 1908, when a textile factory owner locked his workers in the factory leading to the deaths of 129 people in a fire. The workers were working with a liliac colour fabric, which nowadays represents the colour of the Women rights movement.
The holiday is important, because it celebrates the achievements and hardships of women worldwide which for a long time and even today in some parts of the world, are not recognized. Women played an important part in the history of mankind, a role which only started to be recognized after the horrible losses of the 20th century, when a huge part of the male population was busy waging war against eachother and thus the opposite sex remained on the home front. They started working in the factories, military and other jobs usually done by men. Because of their accomplishments, society started to view women differently and such women started benefiting from universal suffrage and more rights.
Today the majority of the developed world had implemented equal rights for women and men, and a lot of countries celebrate International Women’s Day every year, but there is still a long way to achieve equality for many women worldwide, and a celebration like this helps raising awareness for rights, and it proves that we are on the right path.