On Wednesday, March 8, International Women’s Day is celebrated with manifestations throughout Spain. However, this year there is an edge to the day as hundreds of perpetrators of gender violence are currently receiving reduced sentences due to a law that should actually punish them harder.
Women’s Day was first proclaimed at the International Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in 1910. At that time,100 men and women from 17 countries took part because of a the massive strike on March 8, 1908. The strike took place in Chicago and New York by women in the textile and clothing industry for an eight-hour working day, better working conditions and suffrage. Since 1975, International Women’s Day has been a holiday recognised by the United Nations, taking place on March 8 each year.
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Women demand equality with men on 8-M
In many countries in the world, including Spain, International Women’s Day is often celebrated fanatically with manifestations in most major cities. Millions of women, but also men, often take to the streets to demand women’s rights, their interests, their development in society and equality with men.
On this day, women make it even more clear that they are fed up with the inequality that still exists between men and women. In the workplace, on the street and at home, there is still aggression, humiliation, sexist violence and simply unequal treatment of women compared to men.
In almost all major cities in Spain, demonstrations are planned on Wednesday on the occasion of 8-M, or March 8. One or more events and lectures have already been announced in Madrid, Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona, Valencia, Alicante, Castellón, Jaén, Granada, Seville, Málaga, Algeciras, Jerez.
New edge to International Women’s Day in Spain
Although Spain has been celebrating International Women’s Day for years, this day is slightly more sensitive than usual this year. There is currently a lot of controversy surrounding the ‘Sólo sí es í legislation since a loophole has been discovered that has made some 700 convicted perpetrators of gender violence eligible for reduced sentences. Several dozen have even been released from prison. This while the law was created precisely to tackle these perpetrators harder.
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