And it’s not just that it was a communist who suggested the idea all the way back in 1910; International Women’s Day’s true origins arose two years earlier, in 1908, at a march of 15,000 women in New York city, over labour rights. In 1909, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman’s Day.

Making it international was Zetkin’s idea. The German activist tabled the motion at an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910. With 17 countries represented, her suggestion was unanimously agreed upon and celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland in 1911.

That New York march of 1908 was about labour rights, yes, with female workers looking for equal pay and shorter hours, but it was also about the right to vote. The march, and its ideology, were therefore tied to key objectives.

There was no virtue signalling in sight. It was action and outcome based.

And that Switzerland was one of the first countries in the world to mark International Women’s Day, all the way back in 1911, is rather ironic; it took men in Switzerland, until the 1970s, to allow their female citizens the right to vote.

In a referendum held on February 7, 1971, 65.7% of voters approved the right of Swiss women to vote and stand for election at the federal level, just shy of 60 years after the country ‘marked’ International Women’s Day.

In Switzerland — or anywhere for that matter — rights were not handed out on a silver platter.

It’s always been the opposite, rights are rarely given freely, but instead requested, then demanded and then fought for until finally won and feminism — with which International Women’s Day is currently aligned — is often the vehicle.

Women in Switzerland, for example, had been demanding the right to vote as far back as 1868, without success.

It wasn’t until 1959, that the country held its first referendum on women’s right to vote. The result of that referendum was the polar opposite to the subsequent one 12 years later. In 1959, 66.9% of the male Swiss electorate voted no to giving Swiss women the vote.

To this day, Switzerland with its high-functioning infrastructure, isn’t much of a leader when it comes to women’s rights and trails Ireland considerably. If you become a mother in Switzerland, you’re only entitled to 14 weeks maternity benefit, versus our 26 weeks.

Feminism, which some believe is often eating or attacking itself, is really in a state of constant evolution, an ever-evolving social movement that must shift to meet the demands of the day.

Important to retain origins

So 2023’s versions of International Women’s Day and feminism, is obviously going to be a lot different to 1911’s versions of International Women’s Day and feminism, but retaining origins is important.

If, however, change is a key trait of feminism, so too is the movement’s ability to affect change; it has a long and strong track record in winning collective rights in areas such as voting, land ownership, credit and capital, labour, reproductive control and marital rights, or the right to divorce. These were all rights that International Women’s Day and those who originally marched for it, firmly believed in.

Few social movements have ever affected so much change, in so many countries, over such a long period of time. So when you wonder where the antipathy towards feminism might originate, consider the very real threat the movement has posed, and continues to pose, to those whose world view is very much that of traditional power-holding and maintaining the status quo.

If we take International Women’s Day as a day to mark the beginnings of the movement of feminism, it wasn’t actually until 1975 that it made it big time, when the UN began celebrating the day.

To some it’s tokenistic, to others it’s virtue signalling, but for many it’s a significant and important marker in the calendar, a global and shared platform from which to speak.

But this International Women’s Day, let’s not lose sight of its origins, its commitment to action and to key objectives.

Two questions are worth asking. How could I affect change this International Women’s Day? And who is not at this table?

Let’s Match Mums is an organisation operating across Ireland by ordinary, everyday people. Their elevator pitch is: “We match refugees in need of kids’ goods with local mums who have those items.” A positive action for International Woman’s Day would be to follow them on social media looking for their regular shoutouts for specific equipment needed for women and children in direct provision in Ireland.

If you’re holding an event, a fundraiser, is it accessible? Feminism is about accessibility — will your friend’s sister who uses a wheelchair be able to attend? And does it assume just one experience or several?

If you’re an employer and are hosting an event next Wednesday what are your policies in areas such as reproductive health, miscarriage, the gender pay or pension gap and maternity leave or flexi-time? You might have a really inspiring female speaker booked for an hour in the morning, but how does your organisation impact its people the other 364.5 days of the year?

Political party? Next year we have local elections. There is no gender quota mandating 30%, 20%, even 10% of candidates be female. 

International research shows, when women run, they fare as well as their male counterparts. The Irish electorate is not sexist at the polls, yet just 24% of local council seats are held by women. It’s not that we voters aren’t voting for them; it’s that parties aren’t selecting enough of them to even run. If they’re not in, they literally cannot win.

A lot has changed in the intervening years since that New York march of 1908 and communist Clara Zetkin, much of it for the better, and benefiting us all, the collective, and not just women. Let’s make this International Women’s Day more about real action and less about token gestures.