Quiet Mountain Essays
Copyright©, 2005
Celebrating Women's History Month
(also known as International Women's Day)
by
Katarina Tepesh
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" By Emma Lazarus, 1849-1887
A mighty woman with a torch, the Statue of Liberty, standing since 1886, which makes her the
oldest woman worldwide, is celebrating another Women's Day on March 8. International
Women's Day is to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have
played an extraordinary role as makers of history. Since 1987, the celebration has extended into
the entire month of March as the Women's History Month.
It all started a long time ago, at the 1851 Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, when a
former slave, Sojourner Truth, gave her famous speech "Ain't I a Woman?" Born 1797 as Isabella
Van Wagener in Ulster County, New York, her first language was Dutch. Illiterate, she ran away
from slavery in 1843 and changed her name to Sojourner Truth. At a time when oratory was fine
art, Sojourner Truth, through her strong character and acid intelligence, was among the best and
most famous anti-slavery speakers of her day. Her deep, bass voice, her fierce intelligence, sense
of drama, and the utter sincerity of her speeches quickly spread her fame throughout the North
and astounded the unbelieving South. Frequently, efforts were made to silence her. She was
beaten and stoned, but nothing could stop her. Her speeches touched the hearts of many and led
to the strengthening of the abolitionist movement in the United States.
One of her most famous lines was delivered in response to a man who questioned her
womanhood. Recounting the trials and tribulations she had suffered as a slave woman, and
speaking as a mother of five children, Sojourner Truth asked, "Ain't I a woman!" In October 1864,
she addressed an audience with President Abraham Lincoln at the White House. She died on
November 23, 1883 at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan.
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. However, many historical events preceded this notion.
On March 8, 1857, women working in clothing and textile factories (called garment workers) in
New York City, staged a protest. They were fighting against inhumane working conditions and
low wages. The police attacked the protesters and dispersed them. Two years later, again in
March, these women formed their first labour union to try to protect themselves and gain some
basic rights in the workplace.
Almost fifty years later, on March 8, 1908, fifteen thousand women marched through New York
City demanding shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights and an end to child labour. They
adopted the slogan "Bread and Roses", with bread symbolizing economic security and roses a
better quality of life.
March 25, 1911, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working
girls, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. Finally, this tragic event had a significant
impact on labour legislation in the United States, and the working conditions improved.
Women protesting actually started back in ancient Greece, when 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 first official National Women's Day observed across the United States happened in 1909 and it
soon spread to Copenhagen, Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In 1913, as part of the
peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first
International Women's Day.
However, the International Women's Day protest that changed the world occurred in Russia in
1917. Long struggle and many strikes inspired thousands of Russian women to leave their homes
and factories to protest the terrible shortages of food, the high prices, the world war, and the
increasing suffering they had bitterly endured. The protest inspired the last push of a revolution.
A general strike spread through Petrograd, and, within a week, Czar Nicholas II was forced to
abdicate.
In 1921, the Bulgarian women attending the International Women's Secretariat of the Communist
party made a motion that the day be uniformly celebrated around the world on March 8.
Why dedicate a day exclusively to the celebration of the world's women? You might think that
women's equality benefits mostly women, but every one-percentile growth in female secondary
schooling results in a 0.3 percent growth in the economy, according to The United Nations
statistics. Yet girls are often kept from receiving education in the poorest countries that would best
benefit from the economic growth. The majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor are
women.
Every year since 1987, to recognize and celebrate women's accomplishments, the President of the
United States issues a special Women's History Month Proclamation. The 2005 theme, "Women
Change America", celebrates the myriad ways in which the spirit, courage, and contributions of
American women have added to the vitality, richness, and diversity of American life. American
women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the
growth and strength of our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways. American women
constitute a significant portion of the labor force working both inside and outside of the home, and
have played a unique role throughout American history by providing the majority of the
volunteer labor force in charitable, philanthropic, and cultural institutions.
Contributor's Notes...
Katarina Tepesh is part of the Gotham Writers group based in New York City. Before moving to
New York, Ms. Tepesh lived in Croatia. Her writing has appeared in Zajednicar, The Croatian
American, "CROWN CroatianWorld.Net", "CanCroAm.TV", Glasnik, American Home, Slovenija
Magazine and Caprice magazine.
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