International Woman's Day
更新日：2023年3月1日
Hello!
The story of one holiday.
March 8th is coming soon, is this a special day in Japan? As I recently found out, not many people in Japan know about International Women's Day. I will tell you about this day. The theme of this day is the movement for human rights and women's rights, drawing attention to issues such as gender equality, sexism, reproductive rights and violence against women.
How it all started. On March 8th, 1904, in New York, American textile workers demanded equal pay for men and women, improved working conditions, a 10-hour working day. The action did not give anything, but it was the beginning of the struggle of women for their rights.
Many more demonstrations followed. Thousands of women demanded the right to vote, opposed harsh working conditions and child labor. And already in 1977, on the Soviet initiative, the United Nations gave this day the status of an international day for the struggle for women's rights and international peace. This day is celebrated in most European countries and in China and Russia.
As you can see, over the past 150 years, women have nevertheless achieved certain rights for themselves. Today, women can study, work, vote, work in public office - this is the result of this struggle.
But let's take a closer look at how, by supporting the women's movement in equal time, the Soviet Union changed the way a woman thought.
I'll show it to you in postcards:
Postcard from 1932.
The inscription "March 8 is the day of the women workers' uprising against kitchen slavery. Down with oppression and philistine home life”
Postcards from World War II 1939-1945
The inscription "March 8 - Women's Emancipation Day"
By the sixties, there was no any struggle for equality was no longer visible. The country, after terrible losses in the Second World War, needed a population. The ideas of the image of a woman-mother were laid down in postcards, posters, and magazines.
The inscription "March 8"
Over the decades, the meaning of the holiday has changed many times.
Here, for example, is a postcard about the labor heroism of Soviet women: mothers, nurses, collective farmers and factory workers.
Kindergartens and nurseries (kindergarden for children under one yer old) were actively opened in the country.
But at the same time, no one freed a woman from housework. Now a woman should be a good housewife, mother and be the best at work.
The inscription "GLORY to the heroic Soviet woman"
Later, this holiday became a holiday of spring, beauty and femininity, it was in this form that I learned about this day. On this day, men give flowers to all women, girls, grandmothers. This is done at work, at school, at home, even just to female visitors in a cafe.
The inscription ”Happy March 8”
And only when I moved to the Kyev and saw the equality parade I learned the real meaning of this holiday. The 8th of March is the day of women's struggle for their rights, the day of human rights and the day of peace.
Now in Ukraine, on the day of March 8th, there is a march where thousands of women take to the streets to remind of their rights.
The inscription "GLORY to the heroic Soviet woman"
Captions: "Spring has come-undress yourself." “A woman is a person, not an ornament of your life!”
Epilogue
Despite the fact that we live in the 21st century, the situation with women's rights, gender inequality and sexism in Ukraine, Japan and the world is far from ideal. And this should be remembered not only on March 8th, but throughout the entire time.
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