Tracing back the roots of Women's March Commemorations. Why does it still matter in 2023?

"March Women's celebrations represent an opportunity not only to commemorate the achievements made by many women worldwide but also to shed light on ever-surfacing gender parity issues."

March is widely commemorated as Women’s History Month. It is a special month where an ever-growing number of people from different countries, cultures, and religions usually celebrate, although now more than anything, reflect on the commonly overlooked contributions women have made worldwide throughout history. As such, I couldn’t think of a better way to begin the monthly columns I’ll be publishing on LinkedIn than tracking down the historical facts behind commemorating women's efforts in March and discussing the importance of continuing to do so each year.

Now, we may commonly, even though mistakenly, think March is Women’s History Month, given that on March 8th (8M), we celebrate International Women’s Day. In fact, even though related, different historical events have shaped both. Let's dive deep.

As a matter of fact, International Women’s Day being celebrated on 8M has strong ties with women's movements that took place in the Russian Revolution of 1917. But, before the backdrop of the violent political events that marked the end of the Romanov dynasty and czarist rule gave rise to the Bolsheviks (with outstanding and often unrecognized contributions of women fighting for their right to vote in Russia), 8M began taking shape in 1848 United States, where Elizabeth Lady Stanton and Lucretia Mott gathered women in New York City to create the first women’s rights convention, after being censored and prohibited to speak at anti-slavery conventions.[1]

After these first steps, the next significant milestone took place when the US began celebrating National Women’s Day on February 28, 1909, after the Socialist Party of America declared it in honor of a 1908 garment workers’ strike where women played a crucial role in protesting against poor working conditions. The latter inspired Germany’s Social Democratic Party women’s office leader Clara Zetkin to propose the celebration of an International Women’s Day at a Socialist International gathering in Copenhagen later in 1910.[2]

Shortly after, International Women’s Day became an important mechanism to protest against the horrors of World War I in war-torn Europe. As such, March 8th (actually, February 23 in then used Julian calendar in Russia) marked the most significant strikes in territories such as Russia, where women protested to demand bread and peace[3] , thus marking the first day of the Bolshevik Revolution, and London where women rallied in support of women’s suffrage. As time passed, post-World War II, many countries began celebrating March 8, until in 1975, the United Nations officially declared it International Women’s Day.

Now, what we know as Women’s History Month tracks more recently and is tied with the US, although still rooted in the events that led to 8M. The monthlong celebration actually sparked out of a weeklong celebration in Sonoma, California, in 1978, where women gathered to shine a light on women’s contributions to culture, history, and society in general. A couple of years later, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation that declared the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week, later being transformed into a Monthly celebration by Congress after a petition by the National Women’s History Project.[4]

But why does retracing the origins of the March Women commemorations matter? In not too recent years, criticism has spawned, accusing the celebrations of turning women's achievements into mere exceptional circumstances brought up on a yearly basis as an opportunity for companies to put a purple background behind their logos on social media or for men to express their love to us. As soon as April comes around, critics say, it's business as usual.

To some degree, there is much truth to these claims. Unfortunately, women in 2023, as unbelievable as it sounds, are still being discriminated against and marginalized, especially in leadership positions, with progress toward gender parity stalling. Let's turn to the data.

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest Global Gender Gap Report shows that, at the current rate of progress, an astonishing 132 years are still left to reach full gender parity, while it stretches to 155 years on Political Empowerment and 151 years on Economic Participation and Opportunity. Most worrying, gender parity in 2022's labor market stood at 62,9%, the lowest since the WEF began developing the report.[5] The latter, while the percentage of women CEOs only reached the 10% mark in Fortune 500 companies[6] (finally!), a mere 17 countries have women as Heads of State, and women's representation heading Cabinet Ministers stands at just 22.8% worldwide.[7]

These are just a few facts that aid us in drawing the big picture on gender parity to make sense of the disconformity that the March women's celebrations bring for many. That being said, I believe 8M and International Women’s month represent an opportunity not only to commemorate the achievements made by many women worldwide but also to shed light on ever-surfacing gender parity issues.

Rightfully so, Julie Gottlieb, professor of modern history at the University of Sheffield, pointed out to journalist Sarah Johnson of The Guardian the International Women’s Day’s capacity to adapt to present-day concerns. The UN′s 2023 International Women’s Day theme was “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.”, which couldn’t arrive at a better time when we are experiencing breakthrough innovations in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will change our lives forever.

As an example, in beginning to draw ideas for an upcoming piece about the future of international affairs professionals and diplomats in an AI-driven future, I asked Open AI’s Dall E 2 to create an oil painting of the diplomat of 2050. It turns out the AI system delivered five images, all of which, to my surprise, included white males with suits & ties. This is because, as advanced as the technology is in its current state, it is still much dependent on large datasets which are prone to human bias, making it likely for under-represented groups, such as women, to continue being marginalized, even to a greater extent, in the face of the latest innovations.

The latter also shows up in the data. As part of this year’s theme, UN Women points out that in a global analysis of 133 AI systems across different industries, over 44% show gender biases. Additionally, women only account for 22% of the AI workforce worldwide. Undoubtedly, such underrepresentation could cause even greater marginalization of women in technology-driven industries.[8]

With all these in mind, I return to the question, why does retracing the origins of the March Women commemorations matter? In having a specific date or month to commemorate, celebrate and remember the outstanding achievements made by thousands of powerful women worldwide, we can not only use these as a reminder of the need to?break the glass ceiling, shed light and fight for newly surfaced and ever-growing issues that widen the gender gap. These also represent an opportunity to benefit from social media and press coverage in reminding people that there isn’t such a thing as a women’s day. Women’s day should be every day; gender parity shouldn’t be fought for once yearly. Gender equality should and will be the norm.

[1] Source: United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day/background

[2] Source: Johnson (2023). https://amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/08/happy-international-womens-day-a-look-back-at-over-a-century-of-the-global-fight-for-justice-and-equality

[3] Source: The Guardian (2017). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/womens-protest-sparked-russian-revolution-international-womens-day

[4] Source: History (2009). https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/womens-history-month

[5] Source: World Economic Forum (2022). https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2022/

[6] Source: Forbes (2023). https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizelting/2023/01/27/new-year-new-glass-heights-for-the-first-time-in-history-over-10-of-fortune-500-ceos-are-women/?sh=d938313e77f5

[7] Source: UN Women (2023). https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures

[8] Source: UN Women (2023). https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/in-focus/2023/03/in-focus-international-womens-day