Plus

Plus

Bread and roses
By Aditha Dissanayake
The year is 1908. The country is the United States of America. During thirteen cold winter weeks, 30,000 women garment workers go on strike. They march the streets of New York protesting against low wages, long working hours and inhumane working conditions. Their slogan is "bread and roses" - bread symbolizing economic security, and roses, a better quality of life. Two years later, in August 1910, at a meeting in Copenhagen, the Women's Socialist International decides to commemorate the strike by observing a day for women.

Sometimes called witches and bitches and condemned for being frail and frivolous the time had come for women to press for their demands. Especially so because women were no longer associated with flowers and sweets as they had once been for poets like Keats. Nor could they be ignored as Oscar Wilde had done; the "decorative-sex who never had anything to say but said it charmingly."

Women today are not only wives and mothers, but also breadwinners. With access to education and health care their participation in the paid labour force has grown. Today in Sri Lanka a sizeable contribution to the country's economy, especially in the tea plantations and the FTZs is made by women. About 600,000 of them, working abroad, contribute foreign exchange of more than 70 billion rupees.

But nowhere in Sri Lanka or in any other country in the world, can women claim to have the same rights and opportunities as men. Three-quarters of the women over 25 in much of Asia and Africa are said to be illiterate. In Sri Lanka out of the total women’s workforce only 16% are employed in decision-making professions. Women continue to be victims of violence with rape and domestic violence listed as significant causes of disability and death among women of reproductive age.

Now on March 8 every year, the world celebrates International Women's Day - the day which tells the story of women as makers of history; the day which recalls the struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war, during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality and fraternity" had marched on the streets to demand women's suffrage.

Closer to home, Suppa Devi ran away from home seeking independence. But the struggle for equality, justice, peace and development began at the turn of the century, in the industrialized world, during a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies.

In 1977, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace, to be observed on a date chosen by each Member State. The General Assembly cited two reasons for doing so. "To recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and development of women, and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security."

The acknowledgment is evidence of the progress women have made, since that day in 1908. Many countries have adopted legislation that promises equal opportunities for women and respect for their human rights. The world has a growing number of women policy makers. March 8, today, is therefore, a day to assess how far women have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development. It is also a day to unite and plan for future changes. Let the words of the Latin American poetess, Alejandra Pizarnik be the cry of all descendents of Eve - "Help me not to ask for help."

Back to Plus