Over many decades, due to the impact of the thought “male chauvinism”, the woman’s condition had suffered many disadvantages. The history of fighting for women dates back to Ancient Greece when Lysistrata entered the fight against men to end the war. However, the history of International Women’s Day 8/3 only started from the movement to fight for the right of American workers to live.
By the end of the 19th century, capitalism boomed, especially in America. As the industry developed, it attracted many women and children to work in factories. Capitalist owners had taken the strength of women and children and paid low wages, making the lives very miserable and difficult. Indignant at that brutal oppression, on March 8, 1899, in the two cities of Chicago and New York (USA), there was a strong struggle of female textile workers, demanding higher wages and lower work time.
Those first struggles of American female workers had great resonance, a strong source of encouragement for the struggle of working women around the world. In the face of the quantitative and qualitative growth of the world’s women’s struggles, on August 26 and 27, 1910, the second congress of the world’s women was organized in Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark. The conference decided to choose March 8 as the International Women’s Day, which is a day of unity and fighting for women with the slogans: “Working 8 hours per day”, “Equal work”, “Protection mothers and children”. After that, 8 March 1977 was formalized by the United Nations as International Women’s Day.
The content of the International Day (March 8) was not only equality but also widening the new concept about “Development and Sex”. The various perspectives about the issues of women were recognized and evaluated totally through a series of world conferences by all nations in the world.
In our country, March 8 is also the day to commemorate the uprising of Hai Ba Trung, the first two national heroines who drove away from the foreign invaders in the North and regained our national sovereignty. The pride and the will to rise of Vietnamese women are also rooted in unique ethnic traditions. Winning the uprising of Hai Ba Trung is praised, expressing the independent will and national pride. At the same time, the uprising was also proof of the strength of Vietnamese women in human history, in the cause of building and defending the country.
In fact, the custom of “male chauvinism” no longer exists in many places. The gender equality movement has developed significantly in many countries around the world. The woman’s role has been increasingly enhanced and they got out of the family framework. In the past, the concept of “men build houses, women build homes,” was popularized. But nowadays, women have participated in many different jobs, showing many important roles in society.
According to a recently statistical result in Vietnam, women have accounted for 51% of the workforce and play a major role in housework and child-rearing. However, among the members of the National Assembly of Vietnam- the most powerful organization, women have accounted for 27.3%. Those are rated by the United Nations that “The percentages of Vietnamese women participate in the political activities is highest in the world”. In Vietnam, the rate of female graduates university is 36.24%, master’s degree is 33.95% and doctor is 25.96%. Thus, the role of the woman is increasingly enhanced. And the twenty-first century is also predicted to be the woman’s century.
Currently, in Vietnam and many countries around the world, many women have held high and important positions in society, even serving as President of a country. In the past, some works were mainly done by men. But nowadays, the work has been shared with women. The development in a woman’s abilities and roles has confirmed that women are half of the world in the fullest sense. Therefore, women today are gradually asserting themselves as beautiful women but not weak women like before.
The quality of gender equality is the indicator of assessing social welfare in each country. However, in Vietnam, the problems of gender perception and old stereotypes have brought many unfair social manifestations in thinking, behavior and lifestyle. This not only oppressed the happiness and opportunities of women but also created unnecessary pressure on men and pushes back the general development of society. Promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is an area that RIC is promoting. RIC wishes to receive the cooperation of donors, organizations, individuals and communities to substantially promote gender equality in Vietnam.
In conclusion, on the occasion of March 8, RIC sincerely sends all grandmothers, mothers also women in general for health, happiness and success in all fields.
