Beverley Anderson-Manley

Twenty-nine years ago, in 1978, International Women's Day (IWD) was celebrated in Jamaica for the first time. The concept was introduced here by the Committee of Women For Progress (CWP) - a group of women affiliated to the Workers Party of Jamaica. It was supported by the Peoples National Party Women's Movement (PNPWM) and other women's groups who collaborated to organise a rally at which Prime Minister Michael Manley was guest speaker. The theme for that first year was 'Women United for National Independence and Equality.'

At that first celebration on March 8, 1978, the CWP and the PNPWM announced its intention to lobby for a Maternity Leave with Pay Law for all working women. The law was passed after many struggles - at the end of the International Year of the Child in 1979. Twenty-nine years later, International Women's Day is alive and well in Jamaica.

The Origins of IWD

International Women's Day did not come about by accident. It was the result of years of struggle by working women and socialist women. On March 8, 1567 garment workers in New York City marched and picketed for better working conditions. The following year they were joined by women who worked in the needle trades. The struggle for women's rights continued in the United States in 1903. By 1908 socialist women in the U.S.A. initiated the first Women's Day celebration when large demonstrations took place calling for the vote and the political and economic rights of women.

The following year2,000 people attended a Women's Day Rally in Manhattan, when women garment workers staged a general strike. Twenty to thirty thousand shirtwaist makers struck for 13 cold, winter weeks for better pay and working conditions. The Women's Trade Union League provided bail money for arrested strikers and large sums for strike funds.

By 1910, the time had come to make Women's Day international. As Women's Day was taken up by socialists and feminists throughout the United States, delegates went to the Second International Congress of Women in Copenhagen with the intention of proposing that Women's Day become an international event. The German Socialist movement had many advocates for the rights of women, including leaders such as Clara Zetkin who had already written a proposal that women throughout the world should focus on a particular day each year to press for their demands. The conference unanimously accepted the proposal and International Women's Day was born. Interestingly, among other things, the conference also called for maternity benefits but for married women only.

Zetkin, a renowned revolutionary theoretician, dared to argue with Lenin on the subject of women's rights. She was considered a grave threat to the European governments of her time. The Kaiser called her "the most dangerous sorceress in the empire".

Non-traditional Areas

We need another generation of women in Jamaica - willing to work to ensure that the average Jamaican woman attains some level of economic independence so that she can make choices about her body and her life. In the famous Lawrence textile strike of 1912, women carried placards with the words "We want bread and roses, too".

Some progress has been made. For example, since the 1970s we have seen women working in so-called non-traditional areas - in construction, as marine divers, as truck and bus drivers, in the army, in the police force and as Prime Ministers. Let us not take this for granted but recognise that this is possible because we are standing on the shoulders of the women who went before us.

In saluting the women of the world - I salute the women leaders of Jamaica who made International Women's Day a reality here, and the large numbers of women who participated in and continue to work so that other women can live a better life. We all yearn for a society where there is mutual respect and love between women and men.

To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi - the history of IWD is an excellent example of ordinary women doing extraordinary things.

The women's agenda leads to the gender agenda and the sustainable development agenda.