International Women's Day

Women celebrated Women's Day in all parts of Britain, holding conferences and festivals and many meetings for the occasion in this first year after the war. The central idea in Mrs. Attlee's message, addressed to the London women's society, was 'peace in the world.' She said: My hope is great that woman will exert her mighty efforts, and use her influence too, as she has done before, to prevent the repetition of the horrors of war, and will help to bring happiness to the whole human race in the shelter of world peace.

An international women's congress was held in London under the presidency of Mrs. Leah Manning, M.P., attended by numerous delegations of women from all parts of Britain and Europe, from some of the African countries, and from India and China. The congress was distinguished by its many delegates, who represented the various sides of women's activity during the last world war; and among them were women who had plunged into the thick of struggle and combat, in various forms, against the forces of tyranny and aggression in the First World War. Among the congress members you could see the nurse and the worker in the war factories, the motorcar driver, the engineer, the doctor, the teacher, the children's nurse, the writer, and the woman seasoned in political and social affairs — deputy, or minister, or ambassador, or otherwise.

The European delegates, especially the Frenchwomen, who had taken a serious part in the work of the resistance, spoke of the great roles they had played, with their sisters, in resisting the enemy and driving him from the country. They recalled, too, how much toil, persecution, and oppression they had met in the torture camps, and how hard they had striven to keep their children and to save them from the clutches of hunger.

It is worth mentioning that a large number of the delegates supported the idea that the equality of woman with man must be demanded in all the countries of the world, and that she must be given the same opportunities for work and advancement as man, since woman proved in the last war her mental and physical capability. The congress concluded its work by adopting a positive resolution for continuous endeavor and labor, in cooperation with all the women's associations in the world, on the necessity of caring for the child and of establishing day nurseries, so that woman may have time enough to share with man in work. It was also resolved that woman in all the countries of the world should exert great activity in fighting the fascist spirit and destroying its last stronghold — namely, the Franco regime. Finally a resolution was adopted on the duty of working to support the United Nations organization and of spreading the idea of world peace as laid down in the Charter of San Francisco.