International Women’s Day.

Today is International Women’s Day. 

This is a holiday for all women in the world: mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, political leaders and scientists, housewives and astronauts, doctors and teachers, etc.  

More than 100 years ago women stood for equal rights. Since then, March 8 is a day to observe women’s rights, strength and solidarity.  

I have loved this holiday since childhood and always celebrate it. 

International Women’s Day was very important in the Soviet Union, and today, in Russia, people continue to celebrate it.  

On this day man usually give women flowers and small gifts. Also, at school and kindergarten children prepare small presents to their mothers and grandmothers and usually perform a concert for them.  

This holiday is always filled with beauty, joy, special moods, love and respect. 

The favorite flowers for the gift on that day are tulips, narcissus and mimosas. The tradition of giving the mimosa was established by Italian politician Teresa Mattei. She chose the mimosa in 1946 as the symbol of International Women’s Day in Italy and bright yellow flower became very popular in this celebration. Mimosas symbolize feminine strength, endurance and beauty. 

In Russia, International Women’s Day has lost all political contexts through the time and became just a beautiful spring day to honor women and feminine beauty. 

History 

International Women’s Day (IWD) started over 110 years ago, originally organized by the Socialist Party of America.  

In 1908, more than 15,000 women marched across New York City, demanding a shorter working day, equal pay and the right to vote.  

In 1909 the first celebration of International Women’s Day took place. 

In 1910, Copenhagen hosted the Second International Conference of Working Women. The leader of the women’s German Social Democratic Party Clara Zetkin, put forward the idea of celebrating International Women’s Day annually in every country on the same. This day consider as a reminder of the struggle of women for their rights.  

In Russia women also supported the idea of equal rights and on March 8, 1917, in Petrograd (St Petersburg now), they organized a march across the city in defense of women’s rights. This strike was supported by female workers from other cities and lead to mass strike. Seven days later, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. 

This was beginning of the Russian Revolution. 

The modern days the Women’s Day in Russia no longer political celebration. This holiday considered as the day of spring, women’s beauty, sensitivity and wisdom. 

In 1977 the United Nations designated it International Women’s Day and since then it became a worldwide celebration. 

In addition, this is a good opportunity to celebrate all women who became history makers and pioneers in many areas of activity.  

Here are some names of women – pioneers and inventors:

Anna Bissell 

Anna Bissell became the first CEO female in America of the Bissell Company in 1889 after her husband’s death. Melville Bissell invented the carpet-sweeping machine and founded Bissell Conpany, but Anna took the sweepers to the next level and made a brand internationally recognizable. She was also one of the first company head to give workers pension plans and workers’ compensation. 

Junko Tabei 

Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer and the first woman who reached the top of Mount Everest and the first woman to climb the highest mountain on every continent, known as the Seven Summits. She took part in 44 all-female mountaineering expeditions around the world. Tabei wrote seven books, worked on environmental projects to preserve mountain environments and organized annual guided tours to climb up Mount Fuji for children. 

Gertrude Ederle 

Gertrude Ederle  was an American swimmer, Olympic champion. She set five world records and became the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926. She swam more than 16 miles through tricky currents and beat the records of the five men who had previously made the swim from 1875 to 1923. 

Indira Gandhi  

Indira Gandhi was the first female Prime Minister of India. She served 15 years as prime minister until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.  

In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named “Woman of the Millennium” in an online poll organized by the BBC. In 2020, Gandhi was declared by Time magazine among the 100 most powerful women in the world who defined the last century. 

Valentina Tereshkova 

Valentina Tereshkova was the first female astronaut who went to space. In 1963, she spent almost three days in space and orbited Earth 48 times in the spacecraft Vostok 6. later Tereshkova toured the world to promote science and became involved in Soviet politics. After the Soviet Union collapsed, she remained politically active as a member of the Russian State Duma. 

 Mary Anderson – Windshield wipers 

 Mary Anderson was an American real-estate developer, rancher, and inventor of the windshield wiper blade.

During her trip to New York City, she noticed a trolley driver couldn’t see well when it was snowing. The trolley car’s front window had a hand-operated multi-pane windshield system which worked very poorly: to clear the sights, the driver needed to lean out of the vehicle to clean the window. As a solution, in 1903 Anderson designed and patented a wood and rubber windshield wiper blade that could be operated from the inside by the trolley driver. 

After 1920 Anderson’s a windshield wipers became standard equipment in every car. 

Josephine Cochrane – Dishwasher 

Josephine Cochrane invented the dishwasher in 1886.

She learned her engineering skills, perhaps, from her father and grandfather. Her father was a civil engineer and her grandfather was an inventor.

After marriage, Josephine and her husband William often hosted receptions at home, serving tables with Chinese porcelain. Once during a party, the servants broke some plates while washing the dishes. Josephine began washing dishes by herself and thought about an easier, gentler way to clean them.

Cochrane created a motor-powered dishwasher and in 1886 received a patent. Surprisingly, the first buyers were not housewives, but hotels, restaurants, colleges and hospitals. Only later housewives began using the dishwasher.

In 1916, After her death, the company was bought out by KitchenAid and now we can’t imagine life without a dishwasher. 

My Dear Women!

Happy International Women’s Day!

Be always healthy, beautiful, confident, and feminine.

Take a good care of yourself, treat yourself well, believe in yourself, respect yourself and spoil yourself. You deserve it! 

With love, Angela