International Women’s Day

Recognition, celebration and mindfulness around the world

Omar E. Zapata  | THE RIDER

Today is International Women’s Day, a celebration of social, economic, cultural, political achievements. 

In an interview with The Rider, a UTRGV professor who used to organize a women’s march each year in San Antonio, spoke of the day’s history, evolution and significance.   

Cathryn Merla-Watson, co-director of Gender and Women’s Studies and associate professor in Mexican American Studies, said the observance started early in the 2oth century, which was a time of women organizing around the world for equality.  

“The concept of an International Women’s Day came out of the international socialist women’s conference in 1910 in Europe and was also taken up by the Socialist Party of America with the United States,” Merla-Watson said. “So, it has a socialist beginning.”  

A conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties and working women’s clubs unanimously approved the creation of an International Women’s Day, according to its website.  

Merla-Watson said throughout history, scholars think of feminism in overlapping waves. Many scholars consider the early 20th century as the first or second wave of feminism, she said.  

“In the early 20th century, we have … the women’s suffrage movement,” Merla-Watson said. “So, it’s about really sort of just demanding, you know, to vote and, to some extent, equal rights to men, and achieving gender parity.”  

Another wave of feminism emerged in the 1960s, along with other civil rights movements, such as the Black civil rights movement in the U.S., she said.  

“Within the context of U.S., when we hit the late ’60s, we see women still continuing to struggle to achieve … parody between the sexes [and] this time, sort of vocalizing struggles around not just, like, duties within the family [but] sort of questioning gender norms,” Merla-Watson said. “Because, when you think about, like, the 1950s, you think of these, like, really sort of conservative television shows, like “Leave It to Beaver,” or “The Donna Reed Show,” that show these very sort of, like, what we call, heteronormative understandings of the family where, you know, the woman is the caregiver who stays home, has 2.5 kids, etc.”  

The wave in the late ’60s is pushing back and questioning gender roles, still demanding equal rights and equal pay and also starting to make demands about birth control and control over their own bodies, she said.  

“While there’s still this, sort of, demand for equal rights, those demands becoming more radical,” Merla-Watson said. “By which I mean, really sort of looking at how the construction of  gender is oppressive and systemic, meaning that women are systemically denied certain opportunities and access to important institutions, like education, for example.”  

In 1975, International Women’s Day was observed for the first time by the United Nations. In December 1977, the U.N. adopted a resolution proclaiming a U.N. Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by member states in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

In the late 20th century, Merla-Watson said that feminists started to think more multiculturally, globally and intersectionally about women’s struggles in order to connect and mobilize against it.  

“So, what I mean by intersectionality is understanding that, you know, women are not a homogenous group,” she said. “That we have differences along the accesses of race, class, gender and sexuality and that, while these, sort of, experiences and struggles are different, there are still ways to, sort of, still connect in meaningful ways in order to mobilize, you know, for change.”  

The concept of intersectional feminism comes from African American feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in the early ’90s, Merla-Watson said.  

One of the complaints during the ’60s and ’70s waves was of white feminism, she said.  

“Some groups of white feminism said that … feminism comes before anything … even before fighting racism,” Merla-Watson said. “And Black women and Latinas, for example, were saying, ‘No, like, those two things go hand in hand for us. Those struggles … go hand in hand for us.’”  

She said intersectionality helps recognize how feminism is not homogenous and that it is overlapping categories of identity of race, ethnicity, class and sexuality.    

“It’s a really important concept, because it helps us identify, sort of, our baggage, like our privileges within the movement in order to, you know, recognize those privileges and still find ways of … connecting and mobilizing for particular issues,” Merla-Watson said.  

She said some feminists that come to mind when talking about intersectional feminism are Angela Davis, Audrey Lorde and, from the Rio Grande Valley, Gloria Anzaldúa.  

In 1996, the U.N. gave International Women’s Day its first annual theme, “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future,” which was followed in 1997 with “Women at the Peace Table.” In 2021, the day’s theme is #ChooseToChallenge, stating, “A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions–all day, every day.”  

“What I appreciate about the day  is that it’s, sort of, up to women in whatever community to figure out or to, like, interpret what the day and the themes [mean, because the themes] are always really broad, right,” Merla-Watson said. “So, it’s up to[women] to figure out, like, what International Women’s Day means to women in, you know, the Rio Grande Valley or in San Antonio, where I’m from.

“So, for many years, actually, before coming to UTRGV, I used to organize the International Women’s Day March. And … each year in San Antonio, we would organize the march around issues that were, you know, affecting women in San Antonio.”  

With the first International Women’s Day event held in 1911 in Denmark, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of the celebration.  

It is important to take a formal moment to pause, recognize and celebrate women’s various achievements and progress, Merla-Watson said.  

“It’s also a really important day to … educate and educate ourselves around the very real oppressions and struggles that still affect women and not just recognize them, but really try and understand how these issues are systemic, meaning that they can’t be solved or thought about for just one day, but that we have to, sort of, meaningfully engage with the issues and systems that have oppressed women,” she said.  

Various UTRGV departments are celebrating International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month with online events.  

International Admissions & Student Services, with assistance of the Women’s Faculty Network, will celebrate International Women’s Day at 3 p.m. today via Zoom. The celebration will also recognize and award Associate Professor of Psychological Science Ruby Charak for UTRGV 2021 Outstanding International Female Faculty and two international students.  

“I’m very proud to celebrate International Women’s Day at UTRGV so we can recognize our outstanding international, female faculty, and … our outstanding international female students for their remarkable academic work, community and school involvement,” said Samantha Lopez, director of International Admissions & Student Services.  

The People Series, hosted by the Center for Diversity & Inclusion and Dream Resource Center, will showcase various influential women who have used their voice to make change throughout March. Author and poet Maya Angelou, women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, and civil rights activist and journalist Ida B. Wells are the women to be featured in The People Series this month.  

“I think when people show up, they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re just learning about them together.’ And that’s really the basic concept,” said Aaron Hinojosa, program coordinator. “We encourage people to communicate how someone’s work impacts them, influences them, informs them and, I think, there’s a lot of beauty and power in that. So, it’s not a lecture. I think some people thinking it’s going to be [that]. It’s not that. It’s not a presentation, either. It’s really a community learning space.”  

The University Library will host a discussion at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday via Zoom about resources related to women’s issues. It will also screen “The Superheroes of Tomorrow,” a film featuring Sana Amanat, Marvel’s vice president of content and character development. After the film, a discussion will take place.  

“We open up that discussion, pretty much, to the attendees,”said Joel Chirinos, head of Research & Instructional Services. “We don’t have, really, a specific agenda that we follow other than we go over the library resources first.”