Ụbọchị Ụmụ nwanyị nke Mba Nile

**International Women's Day** (**IWD**) is a holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement. IWD gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women. Spurred by the universal female suffrage movement, IWD originated from labor movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century.

Ụdị mbụ a kọrọ maka ya bụ "Ụbọchị Ụmụ nwanyị" nke ndi Socialist Party of America haziri na New York City na Febụwarị 28, 1909. Nke a kpaliri ndị nnọchiteanya ndi Germany na afo 1910 na International Socialist Women's Conference na Copenhagen ka ha tụọ aro ka a hazie "Ụbọchị puru iche i cheta ụmụ nwanyị no nu uwa  niile " kwa  afọ nke obula, ọ bụ ezie na enweghị ụbọchị a kapịrị ọnụ;  n'afọ sochirinụ, e mere ngagharị iwe na ncheta nke Ụbọchị Ụmụ nwanyị Mba Nile na Europe. Mgbe Mgbanwe Ọchịchị Russia gchara aga na 1917, e mere IWD ezumike mba niile na Machị 8;  e mechara mee mmeme ya n'ụbọchị ahụ site n'aka ndị òtù ndọrọ ndọrọ ọchịchị na Mba ndị Kọmunist. Ezumike ahụ mba nille  ghọrọ ezumike zuru ụwa  niile ọnụ mgbe United Nations kwalitere ya mee ya ezigbo mme mme puru iche na ma me ka uwa niile kwanye ya ugwu  na afo 1977. 

**Ụbọchị Ụmụ nwanyị**  bu ezumike mba niile na otutu obodo Nke ndi UN anaghi echefu echefu ha na e debe ezumike na njiko ya na okwu akpan kpan, mkposa, maobu isiokwu na iwu ikike umu nwanyi.

## History
In August 1910, an International Socialist Women's Conference was organized ahead of the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired in part by the American socialists, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede, and others proposed the establishment of an annual "Women's Day", although no date was specified. The 100 delegates, representing 17 countries, agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including women's suffrage.

The following year, on March 19, 1911, the first International Women's Day was marked by over a million people in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. In Austria-Hungary alone, there were 300 demonstrations, with women parading on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, carrying banners honoring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Across Europe, women demanded the right to vote and to hold public office, and protested against employment sex discrimination.

IWD initially had no set date, though it was generally celebrated in late February or early March. Americans continued to observe "National Women's Day" on the last Sunday in February, while Russia observed International Women's Day for the first time in 1913, on the last Saturday in February (albeit based on the Julian calendar, as in the Gregorian calendar, the date was March 8). In 1914, International Women's Day was held on March 8 for the first time in Germany, possibly because that date was a Sunday. As elsewhere, Germany's observance was dedicated to women's right to vote, which German women did not win until 1918. Concurrently, there was a march in London in support of women's suffrage, during which Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.

On March 8, 1917, in Petrograd (February 23, 1917, on the Julian calendar), women textile workers began a demonstration that eventually engulfed the whole city, demanding "Bread and Peace"—an end to World War I, to food shortages, and to Tsarism. This marked the beginning of the February Revolution, which alongside the October Revolution, made up the Russian Revolution. Revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky wrote, "23 February (8th March) was International Woman's Day and meetings and actions were foreseen. But we did not imagine that this 'Women's Day' would inaugurate the revolution. Revolutionary actions were foreseen but without a date. But in the morning, despite the orders to the contrary, textile workers left their work in several factories and sent delegates to ask for the support of the strike… which led to mass strike... all went out into the streets." Seven days later, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.