In 1910, The Second International Conference of Women Women Was Held in Copenhagen, Denmark. At a time when women’s participation as work professionals was expedingly rare, 100 wmen from 17 countries – Representing unions, socialist parties, work women’s clubs – camera. One of them, clara zetkin, tabled the idea of an international woman’s day which continues to be marked worldwide after more than a century.
Her proposal aimed at amplifying collection by design It was approved unanimously at the conference.
Zetkin’s call was followed by Several Other protests And movements in the beginning of the 20th century in the west, as part of what is known as the first wave feminism (from the mid-19th century to the 1920s). Here is how she played a role in advocating for the cause of women, even as socialism of traumped feminism in her worldview.
On the need for women ‘Rights’ Rights
Born in 1857, zetkin grew up when the effects of capitalism became visible in German society. In and around the region, the Rapid Increase in Manufacturing Meant the Value of Goods Domestically Produced by Women Was Declining. This would prompt her to consider the position of women under capitalism.
Zetkin completed secondary schooling but could not pursue university education as women was barred from it. Voting and other political Rights were also restricted. She gets exposed to socialist ideas through her brother and a schoolmate, according to an essay in the journal The feminist studies (‘Clara Zetkin: A Socialist Approach to The Problem of Woman’s Oppression’).
She soon joined the German Social Democratic Party, Often Given Limited Tasks by The Largly Male Leadership. Zetkin gradually improvened her oratory and writing and went on to expound on socialism and why it mattered to woman.
“In former times, the man’s wage along with the production of his home at home had come to insure the existence of his family. Now it is hardly enough for the survival of a single worker. ” This need for men and women to gain employment “Freed Women of their Economic Dependence Upon Men …” (Clara Zetkin: Selected Writings).
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However, she argued that this independence only helped the capitalists. “Due to their monopoly of the means of production (SUCH as Land and Capital), The Capitalists have usurped these new economic factors and made them work exclusively to their advantage. Women who had been lifely librated from the economic department. The slave of the husband became the slave of the employer. “
Still, woman at leader now had some avenues to Achieve Economic Equality with Men, She Noted. Zetkin also argued that inquality in the relationships of men and women with the familyism to capitalism alone and socialism will refove these differences, but not I am not Ilusterate How Th and I.
On Women as a Political Collective
For many women of zetkin’s time, it was important to build a case for women’s quality and voting rights to the general public, and felow women. She said, “Just like the man under equally hard conditions (and at times under more different ones), She needs for this, just like the man, her full political rights because such weapons are we who she can and must defend her interests. “
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“By a slow, painful developmental process, women are being emerging from the narrowness of family life to the forum of political activity. They are demanding their full political equality as it is symbolized by suffraage as a Vital Social Necessity and a social emancipation. The subject of suffraage is the necessary corollary to the economic independence of women, “She said.
She was also critical of women from the capitalist and property classes. “One would assume that in view of this situation, the Entire politically disenfranchised female sex would form one phalanx to fight for universal women. But that is not the case at all. The bourgeois women do not even stand United and Determined Behind the principle of the full political equality of the woman’s right to vote, “She said.
This was due to the “Invitable Consequence of the Diverse Social Strata to Women Belong” Ultimately, the struggle was against the Propertied Classes – Whaer They Happened To Be Women or Men.
On the political sphere
The essay in The feminist studies Noted how zetkin’s views on women evolved, seeing them in terms of their gender Rather than only class. She Said while Women Were Different From Men, The Two Were Equal. By Organizing and attending Conferences, like the one that one that one to wome’s day, she south to build to build global solidarity gingerist women.
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Within her party too, she advocated the need for increasing women in ledership roles even as she was sidelined. She began editing a bi-weekly journal Between 1892 and 1917, with contributions by woman socialist writers. “Zetkin maintained a constant vigilance against discriminatory treatment of women with the socialist camp,” The essay said. She readly criticized “Male Chauvinism in Public” and defended the woman who spoke about prejudices Held by men towards them the socialist movement, “with the full we inflement and present”.
German Women won the right to vote in 1918. In her later years, zetkin was elected to the German parliament or the reichstag in 1932 – Making her own oldest Member. According to a report in The Guardian“Tradition dictated she opened the parliamentary session. She did so with a 40 minute attack on hitler and the nazi party. “