Photo CC-by-RebeccaMarch 8 2011 marks 100 years of International Women’s Day. Despite significant advances made in recent years to ensure women’s equality in Israeli society, gender discrimination still exists in almost every aspect of life: employment, health, personal status, and more. Furthermore, women from minority groups – such as migrant workers, Palestinians, lesbians and transgenders – encounter multiple forms of discrimination.
ACRI works to protect women’s rights in the following areas: eliminating underage marriage; improving access to women’s healthcare; countering discrimination against women in the religious and family court systems; and advocating for equal representation of women in public bodies and in the media.
The History of International Women’s Day:
A century ago, on March 1911, for the first time in history over a million women and men marched across Europe to mark International Women’s Day and to demand full equality for women.
One year before that, in 1910, the Second Socialist International, which convened in Copenhagen, put forth the idea of an international day to promote women’s rights, honor the movement for women’s rights, and build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The idea was promoted by the German socialist Clara Zetkin, who was a central figure in the struggle for women’s rights. The suggestion was unanimously approved by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries. However, no fixed date was chosen for this day.
In 1911, the first time this day was observed throughout Europe, it was in fact held on March 19. The date was chosen because on 19 March in the year of the 1848 revolution, the Prussian king gave way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many promise he made, which he later failed to keep, was the introduction of votes for women.
In 1913 International Women’s Day was moved to 8 March. That year, the international day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I by the European peace movement. March 8 was officially solidified in 1975, which was celebrated as International Women’s Year. In that year, the United Nations began celebrating March 8 as International Women’s Day.
And Today?
One hundred years later, we can look back in satisfaction on the many and varied successes achieved by the movement for women’s rights. However, the struggle is still far from ending – both in Israel and around the world. Violence against women and murders of women by their spouses are still a horrible routine; women are sexually harassed on the streets and in the workplace; and in situations of armed conflict, gender-based inequity is usually exacerbated and women and girls are specifically targeted as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, punish, and/or forcibly relocate members of a community.
There is still a huge gap between the average salaries of men and women; and women are more economically vulnerable in times of economic crises, mass layoffs, budget cuts, and increasing privatization. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2009 40% of Israeli female workers were part-time employees, compared to only 18% of male employees, and the average woman’s salary was only 66% of the average man’s salary – 6280 NIS for women and 9626 NIS for men.
Women still do not have equal access to the corridors of power, even in the public sector. They are also extremely under-represented in global politics, including the Israeli political system. The current Knesset has only 23 female members (less than 20%) and there are only 3 women in the government ministries (10%). Every year, for International Women’s Day, MKs submit various bills intended to promote women’s rights, but this is mostly a PR tactic and most of these bills are rejected by the government and vanish into thin air. The same happened this Sunday, when the Ministerial Committee on Legislation rejected all bills submitted for International Women’s Day, among them a bill to decrease the working hours of working mothers, a bill to require an adviser on women’s rights in every public body, a bill requiring that 50% of employees in public bodies will be women, and a bill to cancel the “abortion committees” in order to enable any woman to stop her pregnancy based on her own choice and not under the current strict criteria. As stated above, all these bills have been rejected by the government.
Today, March 8 2011, many different events will take place throughout Israel to celebrate International Women’s Day and to protest for women’s rights, equality, and well-being. Here’s hoping we will not have to wait 100 more years to achieve this goal.
