International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day, Theresa May has urged people to speak out against abuse of women and girls in a video released to coincide with International Women’s Day. The home secretary’s comments come as figures from the charity Citizens Advice suggest that cases of domestic violence are disturbingly common. The charity said it received reports of attacks from 13,500 people in 2012, 80% of which came from women.

“I’m very pleased to be recognising International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates the achievements of women across the world,” said May. “But as we celebrate women’s achievements, we must also think of the problems that women sadly face all too often in the UK and in other countries across the world.

“I’m thinking particularly of issues like violence against women and girls, domestic violence and abuse that takes place outside of the home.”

International Women’s Day – which was acknowledged on Friday with a Google Doodle – is an annual occasion marked with thousands of events around the world held to inspire women and celebrate achievements. It began in the early 20th century.

May called for people to speak out and said that government moves to stop violence against women could “only do so much”.

“We need to change attitudes,” she said. “We can only change attitudes by working together. Government will do its bit but I want you all to do your bit too. So speak out, stand up against violence against women and girls and that’s the way we can eradicate it.”

Activists and anti-austerity campaigners are also planning to use International Women’s Day to demonstrate against the disproportionate impact they believe government cuts are having on women.

The demonstration has been organised by Reclaim It, a coalition of feminists and activists from UK Uncut, Occupy and Disabled People Against Cuts, which has been specifically formed to take direct action on International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day 2012

International Women’s Day 2012, International Women’s Day (IWD) is traditionally celebrated on March 8th, with global organisations ranging from the UN and European Parliament to Google and the African Development Bank eager to lend their support. Yet its meaning today bears little resemblance to its internationalist origins.

Forgotten heroine Sylvia Pankhurst exemplifies the original spirit of the day. In 1911 German socialist Clara Zetkin organised the first International Women’s Day as a day of international solidarity to fight for common objectives. In Europe alone, more than a million women and men attended rallies demanding women’s equality, the right to work, vote and hold public office: the right for women and working men to enter fully into public life. The disenfranchised, the vast majority in industrialised nations, demanded change and unrest regularly boiled over in the turbulent 1900s.

In Britain, the suffragette movement intensified its campaign for female enfranchisement and in 1906 petitions to parliament were replaced by direct action to try and force the government to support suffrage legislation. Women stormed parliament, smashed windows and damaged the property of the rich, resisted police arrest, organised bombings and arson attacks, and underwent imprisonment. The Pankhurst family led the way and Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst are today memorialized with statues outside parliament for their contribution to the fight for female suffrage. But it is Emmeline’s lesser-known daughter Sylvia Pankhurst who proved to be the real thorn in the establishment’s side and whose fight for women’s equality remains exemplary, even today.

Like her counterpart Clara Zetkin, but unlike her mother and sister, for Sylvia the problem of women’s inequality was not the result of prejudices inside the minds of men, but a structural problem. Capitalism benefited from women’s second class position in the home, maintaining the family for free and as lesser paid workers in the sweated trades. The fight for women’s equality and democratic rights required a challenge to the system and working class women and men had every interest in taking it on. Emmeline and Christabel, meanwhile, wanted the vote for upper class women, not women of the great unwashed or the 42 per cent of working class men denied the vote. They expelled Sylvia from their elite campaign for her political convictions.

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day, PLAY rugby, become miners, broker peace in conflict zones and don’t post n*de videos of other people, are some of the messages for women on International Women’s Day. A report card gave Julia Gillard an “A” for effort as Australia’s first female Prime Minister, but the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) also sounded warnings for the Labor leader.

It praised her conflict management, for making legislative change and re-engaging with the public service in Canberra.

But AGSM executive director Rosemary Howard says Ms Gillard is facing a similar problem to those of other women in top roles – being judged in terms of male leadership qualities.

“Here is a leader who has successfully managed a complex minority government to achieve a remarkable amount of legislative change in a short period of time,” Professor Howard said.

“Yet her public persona revolves around commentary and cartoons on her hair, voice, earlobes, nose and marital status, rather than on achievements as the first female PM of this country.

“The reality is that women in leadership roles are judged by different and often more superficial standards than their male peers.”

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh used a women’s day breakfast to trumpet Labor’s same-sex civil union reforms, as the man who could repeal them, Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman, watched on.

Mr Newman promised 500 scholarships for women if he wins the Queensland election.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was also out touting for votes, promoting his paid parental leave policy and promising a Coalition government would give protection visas to at least 1000 at-risk refugee women and their dependants every year.

Bob Katter’s Australian Party was making promises about respect.

The party’s state leader Aidan McLindon was up in arms about a YouTube video that shows the faces of candidates Sarah Henry, Lynette Bishop, Terri Bell and Margaret Waterman superimposed on n*ked women’s bodies walking down a street with Mr Katter.