Well Done, Sister Suffragettes!

[loveydovey]

Today is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!!!



From the United Nations website:

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often 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 centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.


The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. 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 Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 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, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.


1911

As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen 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.


Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.


1913-1914

As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in 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 sisters.


1917

With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian 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 went on anyway. 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 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.


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.


The Role of the United Nations
Few causes promoted by the United Nations have generated more intense and widespread support than the campaign to promote and protect the equal rights of women. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the Organization has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

Over the years, United Nations action for the advancement of women has taken four clear directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilization of public opinion and international action; training and research, including the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and direct assistance to disadvantaged groups. Today a central organizing principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world's women.

So get out there and celebrate your rights today, sisters.

[postfeminist]

apparently i'm celebrating by wearing a sweater w/ a stain on the front and drinking coffee in the office.

but i think i'll celebrate later w/ a beer. and perhaps someone will post a poll so i can vote today!

great post--most excellent!

[clemsonfan]

I'm celebrating by taking care of the kids, cleaning the house, and cooking.

I think I'll celebrate by eating a Reese's Easter Egg. Mmmmmmm......


For other women's history stuff check out the "March is Women's History Month" in the Current Events/Politics section.

[Little Bit]

Thanks for starting this thread, loveydovey. I posted good wishes for the day over on the Women's History Month thread, but it deserves its own.

Usually my husband sends me flowers to celebrate (much better than getting them on Valentine's Day) but we're traveling out of town later today. So I'm glad to be celebrating the day here.

[BigSugar]

women have suffered for too long!! IT'S TIME TO END WOMENS SUFFERAGE!!

This message brought to you by Virginia Slims....You've come a long way baby.

[loveydovey]

Anyone know who gave women voting rights first, the U.S. or Britain? I just remember watching the mother in Mary Poppins run around singing about Votes For Women! and that was supposed to take place in what, the 50s?

[Handy Smurf]

Its time for Handys ri-smurfin-diculous post of the day

We're clearly soldiers in petticoats
And dauntless crusaders for woman's votes
Though we adore men individually
We agree that as a group they're rather stupid!
Cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters' daughters will adore us
And they'll sign in grateful chorus
'Well done, Sister Suffragette!'
From Kensington to Billingsgate
One hears the restless cries!
From ev'ry corner of the land:
'Womankind, arise!'
Political equality and equal rights with men!
Take heart! For Missus Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again!
No more the meek and mild subservients we!
We're fighting for our rights, militantly!
Never you fear!
So, cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters' daughters will adore us
And they'll sign in grateful chorus
'Well done! Well done!
Well done Sister Suffragette!'

[Little Bit]

Originally Posted by loveydovey

Anyone know who gave women voting rights first, the U.S. or Britain? I just remember watching the mother in Mary Poppins run around singing about Votes For Women! and that was supposed to take place in what, the 50s?

I think the U.K. was first in granting rights but there were some types of restrictions involved, I'm not sure what they were. Full voting rights for women came to the U.S. before restrictions were removed in Britain.

New Zealand, Australia and most of the Scandanavian countries were all ahead of the U.S.

[purple_octopus]

Originally Posted by Little Bit

I think the U.K. was first in granting rights but there were some types of restrictions involved, I'm not sure what they were. Full voting rights for women came to the U.S. before restrictions were removed in Britain.

New Zealand, Australia and most of the Scandanavian countries were all ahead of the U.S.

Most women in the UK could vote (you're right -- with restrictions) in 1918, two years before the 19th Amendment was passed in the US.

[Buzzstein]

Originally Posted by loveydovey

Anyone know who gave women voting rights first, the U.S. or Britain? I just remember watching the mother in Mary Poppins run around singing about Votes For Women! and that was supposed to take place in what, the 50s?

I think it was supposed to take place just after the turn of the century.

[kate]

bumping this.
lovely thread, yay for vaginas.
speaing of, i'll be seeing the Vagina Monologues this friday at a local college.. i'm pretty damn excited.

[Handy Smurf]

i went to see the cock and ball dissertations last weekend, wasn't particularly enthralling

[munkie_boy]

From our friends @ google

[InstantSoup]

Originally Posted by loveydovey

Anyone know who gave women voting rights first, the U.S. or Britain? I just remember watching the mother in Mary Poppins run around singing about Votes For Women! and that was supposed to take place in what, the 50s?

Not that this has anything to do with your original question about the vote, but P.L. Travers wrote the Mary Poppins books in the mid-to-late 30's and she was born 1899 or 1900. I wrote a paper about her but I can't remember all the details.

[postfeminist]

Originally Posted by munkie_boy

From our friends @ google

i saw that and got a kick out of it...thanks for posting it

[lawdog]

Originally Posted by loveydovey

Anyone know who gave women voting rights first, the U.S. or Britain?

Yes, the Brits were ahead of us.

I have a question about the thread title, though. Wasn't "Suffragettes" the British term? I thought that women on this side of the Atlantic found that term derisive, and called themselves "Suffragists."

Anyway, if no one knows, I can just Google it. I just came in to post some Bowie lyrics:

I'm back from Suffragette City
Oh don't lean on me man
Cause you ain't got time to check it

[Rafe]

....Wam bam, thank you ma'am!

[kate]

Originally Posted by lawdog

Yes, the Brits were ahead of us.

I have a question about the thread title, though. Wasn't "Suffragettes" the British term? I thought that women on this side of the Atlantic found that term derisive, and called themselves "Suffragists."

Anyway, if no one knows, I can just Google it. I just came in to post some Bowie lyrics:

I'm back from Suffragette City
Oh don't lean on me man
Cause you ain't got time to check it

I believe you're right, but lovey was quoting the song from Mary Poppins..

[Sushi]

A nice way to celebrate International Women's Day or Women's History Month would be to rent Iron Jawed Angels, the HBO movie about the Alice Paul and other suffragettes just before the amendment passed that gave women the vote. Hillary Swank (aka Mr. PF) stars in it. Really moving and inspiring.