March. This day pays tribute to the effort of all the women in the world and also demands their rights.
Gradually women have held important positions such as:
- Coco Chanel (1883-1971): French designer and creator of perfumes. She was a revolutionary in the fashion world.
- Emmeline Pankust (1858-1928): She was one of the founders of the suffragette movement in Britain, after the 1st world war.
- Petra Kelly (1948): ecologist leader and activist who won the alternative nobel prize in 1982.
- Rosalía de Castro (1897-1985): Poet and novelist in Spanish and Gallego.
- Mariana Pineda (1804-1831): Heroine of the liberal spanish cause in XIX century.
- Frida Khallo (1910-1954): Mexican painter noted for her rebelliousness against social habits and her defense of women in her work.
- Ana Bolena (1507-1536): British Queen who originated the English religious protestantism.
- Florence Nightingale (1820-1910): Founder of the Red Cross.
- Fizee princess: Pioneer in the Muslim feminist movement.
- Simona de Beauvoir (1908-1986): Philosophy teacher in France and also she was a feminist activist and a convinced suffragette.
- Rosa Luxemburgo (1871-1919): Polish marxist theoretical, philosopher, politician and revolutionary.
- Barbara Mc Clintock: Nobel prize in medicine.
- Dorothy Hodking: Nobel prize in chemistry, 1964.
- Federica Montseny: The first Spanish and European female minister.
- Valentina Tereshkova: She was the first female astronaut, 1963.
- Pratibha Patil: The first female president in India.
Realizado por:
Eva Iglesias Rubio y Lucía Martínez Tejada
Women in history
Since early times, women have always been outside the world of politics, economy and culture in general. At the beginning, women didn`t use to have any kind of rights as far as freedom and votes are concerned because men always considered that women were in a lower position than themselves. Therefore, women couldn`t vote because men thought women didn`t understand about politics.
Women not only claimed for their legal rights, but also they claimed for social recognition and social rights. In my opinion there are three stages in which women have reached their equal rights:
- Firstly, at the beginning of the twentieth century, they undertook a long battle to acquire their right to vote. Those movements were led by working class women, claimed for the legal equality, among them was Emmeline Pankhurst.
- Secondly, since then, they had a clear determination to be employed with the same conditions as men and to enjoy a working contract with the same salary as men.
Thanks to the Second World War, European women were allowed to work, undertaking jobs that had previously been carried out by men.
- Finally, when women reached equality in the work environment, it was expected that housework could be shared. However, they found that they had to cope with the hard housework when they returned home. By "housework" we do not only mean cleaning the house but also taking care of the children and their education. So how long would it take for their work to be appreciated?
In spite of all these achievements for women, the situation nowadays has not changed as much as we would have wanted to. However, we should be aware of the increasing number of men that help at home every day.
So, we should appreciate men who believe in the future perspective of women and help them move forward in our society.
Rosibel Toledo Hernández 2º Bachillerato C
