Breathe
By Thelma Elena Pérez Álvarez
At times like the present, it is essential to remember the origin and meaning of the commemoration of International Women's Day.
Some antecedents that have shaped this date are the movements of working women , suffragettes, who, in the mid-nineteenth century, denounced social, family and labor oppression, and demanded the right to vote and equality.
Women textile workers in New York, who marched on March 8, 1857, and denounced the precariousness of labor, demanded a reduction in working hours, an end to child exploitation and the defense of their rights.
Women in Copenhagen who, in 1910, demanded universal suffrage, access to public office, the right to work, vocational training and non-discrimination in the workplace.
The women who succeeded in impacting U.S. labor legislation after demonstrating for the 123 young, immigrant working women between the ages of 14 and 23 who died in the 1910 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York.
Women in the Soviet Union who, in 1917, went on strike and demanded bread and peace in the face of the First World War. Chinese women who, despite repression and censorship in 1949, demanded access to work and defended their rights.
Mexican women who fought for the right to vote in 1956. The women who demanded education for women and girls, health, peace and democracy and succeeded in instituting African Women's Day on July 31, 1962.
In 1975, as part of International Women's Year, the United Nations (UN) commemorated International Women's Day and in 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted March 8 as the official day of commemoration.
As we can see, the origins of the commemoration are economic, political and social. They come from historical manifestations of women who demanded conditions for a livable life with decent working conditions, the right to vote, access to education and justice in a broad sense. The meaning of International Women's Day is to remember the struggles that, for years, women have endured for justice, peace and development to touch them.
This commemoration is not about marketing and propaganda strategies that attempt to instrumentalize and capitalize on the meaning of women's struggles, misrepresenting them. International Women's Day is to raise awareness and question the social reality that women experience, which is traversed by the interaction of the symbolic and material planes that determine the conditions of women's lives.
Thus, the patriarchal system creates gender stereotypes to justify inequality and structural violence against women and girls. At the same time, the corruption of the patriarchy affects them in particular; there is the impunity that prevails in the violence perpetrated against them and the inequitable distribution of public resources that prevents girls and women from accessing education and health care.
If we talk about the social reality of being a woman in Mexico, it is crucial to recognize inequality, poverty, discrimination and violence. Fragments of this reality are in the 85 pesos that, on average, women earn for every 100 pesos that men receive. men receive. In the 76.4% of women caregivers between the ages of 15 and 60 years old.. In girls who are part of the 6.4 million children who do not attend school and of whom almost 3 out of 10 who do not attend school and of whom almost 3 out of 10 speak an indigenous language.
Among women, within d46.1% of the population aged 65 and over, who have an income below the income poverty line. income poverty line. At 7 out of every 10 women who have experienced some type of violence. At 9 to 10 femicides occurring per day .. In the 2,322 women and girls who disappeared due to for reasons of trafficking between January 2018 and November 2024. In the searching mothers who resist the institutional violence of the State's negligence and omission to search for and find the disappeared.
Fragments of the social reality of being a woman in Mexico are present in the girls of Culiacán who learn to protect themselves from stray bullets in school drills and in the girls who sell candy at traffic lights with the complicity of parents and authorities. In the university students who denounce violence and are hindered from activating protocols of attention and prevention, revictimizing them by the patriarchal pact between professors and directors. In women who are exploited through the hoax of "free choice". In the elderly women who, because they lack digital skills, cannot access a job. In journalists who are raped or murdered for not lying. In migrant women and girls who risk sexual violence, trafficking, forced pregnancies and femicide.
On International Women's Day there is nothing to celebrate. Let's question why the State does not guarantee or protect the rights of girls and women. Let us question the corruption and impunity of the patriarchal system.
* Lecturer in digital communication, advertising and marketing at universities in Spain and Mexico. He actively works for the Mexican State to guarantee the human right to media and information literacy.
After a journey through some of the great moments that Universal History records in the path of women's struggle, Thelma Elena Pérez Álvarez provides some fragments that show the reality of Mexican women and proposes approaches and actions to live this date.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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