Enlarge image
A protester with a protest sign during a demonstration to mark Women's Day 2021
Photo: Martin Müller / imago images
International Women's Day on March 8th has been a public holiday in Berlin since 2019 - so far only in this federal state.
Now there is a second one: From 2023 onwards, Women's Day will also be celebrated as a public holiday in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The state parliament in Schwerin passed a corresponding amendment to the public holiday law with the votes of the governing coalition of SPD and Left Party as well as the Greens.
This should set an example for gender equality, it said in the justification for the application of the government of Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD).
In addition, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has had fewer public holidays than other federal states.
Above all, the opposition factions of the CDU and FDP criticized the step because it was an untimely burden on the economy.
They wanted to postpone the introduction to a later date.
Women's Day dates back to the 1910 Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen.
The initiator was the women's rights activist Clara Zetkin.
The day was proclaimed for the first time in 1911. It was first held on March 19, and later March 8 prevailed.
At the rallies in Germany, the introduction of women's suffrage was one of the most important demands - it has existed in Germany since 1918.
While Women's Day was initially of little importance in the Federal Republic, it was officially celebrated in the GDR from 1947.
It was intended to promote equality and honor the work of women - they were often given flowers.
In the West it regained importance in the 1970s thanks to the women's movement of the time.
The United Nations first proclaimed a March 8 celebration in 1975 as part of the International Year of the Woman.
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed it "Day for Women's Rights and World Peace".
mrc/AFP
