Exclusive News's video: International Women s Day 08-03-2017

International Women’s Day What is International Women’s Day? United Nations - UN Secretary-General António Guterres' hails women for their many contributions on International Women's Day, 8 March 2017. This year's theme is “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030”. What is International Women’s Day? In short, it’s a day to work toward gender parity. The Socialist Party of America organized the first National Women’s Day in New York in 1909 to commemorate the 1908 strike of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. (Women garment workers in early-20th-century America had plenty of reasons to walk off the job, as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire would tragically prove.) A year later, National Women’s Day became International Women’s Day at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, where more than 100 women from 17 countries decided to establish a worldwide day of celebration to press for working women’s demands. In fact, the Russian Revolution has International Women’s Day to thank. The 1917 demonstrations by women demanding “bread and peace” sparked other strikes and protests, which led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II four days later and granted women the right to vote. International Women’s Day became a more popularized holiday after 1977, when the United Nations invited member states to celebrate it on March 8. Since 2001, the holiday has had a sponsored website and an annual theme. This year’s theme, , encourages individuals and organizations to sign a pledge to commit to campaigning or otherwise championing equality in the workplace and other settings. The website notes, “[T]he World Economic Forum predicts the gender gap won't close entirely until 2186. This is too long to wait. Around the world, IWD can be an important catalyst and vehicle for driving greater change for women and moving closer to gender parity.”