Green, white and purple to line the streets

By Siobhan Callan

International Women's Day celebrates a special anniversary this year.

International Women's Day 2008 will be a landmark event, celebrating 80 years since the first International Women's Day was celebrated in Australia.

On Saturday March 8 there will be an International Women's Day march in Sydney, and a great deal of organisational effort has been placed by women's groups into making sure that large numbers of women participate in this celebratory anniversary event.

Women will assemble at Sydney Town Hall between 11am and 11.30am. The march will proceed along George Street to King Street, up King Street to Elizabeth Street and then along Elizabeth Street to Hyde Park North for stalls and entertainment.

Green, white and purple banners will be lining the streets of the inner city in the lead up to the event. These particular colours are chosen for International Women's Day because of the acronym formed by the first letter of the name of each of these colours, that is "Get (Green) Women (White) the Vote (Violet)."

Many other International Women's Day events are being organised throughout Sydney and NSW. For a full list visit the NSW Government Office for Women website at www.women.nsw.gov.au. The Office for Women will be sending out an International Women's Day poster to every public school with the theme "100 years of active women in paid and unpaid work". Fact sheets about many aspects of women's lives and work are also available on the Office for Women website.

Further information on International Women's Day is also available from the Women's Electoral Lobby website http://welnsw.org.au.

All Federation workplaces are encouraged to celebrate the day in the week before the event with the involvement of their students to ensure the worthwhile tradition of International Women's Day continues in this very important anniversary year.

History

In New York in 1908, a strike of women garment workers inspired large demonstrations demanding shorter working hours, better pay and voting rights for women. This movement led to the first Women's Day being observed in the United States. It was at this time that poet James Oppenheim wrote the well-known lines to the song "Bread and Roses", now widely heard on International Women's Day.

"Our lives shall not be sweated/ from birth until life closes

"Hearts starve as well as bodies;/ give us bread, but give us roses."

In 1910 an international meeting representing 17 countries was held in Copenhagen. The delegates at this meeting voted to hold an annual International Women's Day in order to honour an increasing number of women's groups working for rights for women and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women.

In 1917, at the beginning of the Russian Revolution, Russian women declared an International Women's Day on March 8 during strikes and protests culminating after the death of more than two million soldiers in World War 1.

Since 1918 International Women's Day has generally been celebrated on March 8 and grown to become a global day of recognition and festivities as well as one means of ensuring that equality for women, in all aspects of their lives, maintains a high priority in all social and political systems around the world. In some countries the day is an official public holiday where children give presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

At the end of 2007 a woman was Prime Minister for the first time in Australia's history, when Julia Gillard acted in the position.

Women certainly have equal voting rights in Australia but are still not present in equal numbers in elected government positions. Around the world levels of education for women generally are lower than those of men and violence against women continues to occur at a far greater rate than violence against men.

Siobhan Callan is Women's Coordinator.

Getting real on women's issues

For further information

February 2008 contents