Women's Questions and Clara Zetkin

There have been various movements led by women since a century ago to find out what structures of society are responsible for the backwardness and fall of women. Women warriors who were at the leadership level at that time had a great contribution to bring about some epoch-making changes that would be addressed to all the women of the world. As the week and month of Women's Day continues, we will always remember the name of revolutionary warrior Clara Zetkin.

Clara Zetkin led two sociopolitical movements in Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—socialism and feminism. Although she defined herself first as a socialist, she can also be called a feminist as an activist for women's rights and as a socialist women leader. She used her socialist ideology to define feminist goals. Clara Zetkin's belief that women's rights are achieved through the support of socialism and that socialism is the best for society makes it desirable to see her as the leader of both the feminism and socialism movements.

International Working Women's Day was started to be celebrated after a labor movement in 1908. During an international conference of working women in Copenhagen in 1910, Zetkin planned the celebration of International Working Women's Day. One hundred women from 17 countries participated in the conference. In 1908, women staged a movement in New York demanding shorter working hours and higher wages. The strike was so effective that Emperor Nicholas was forced to abdicate. The interim government also gave women the right to vote. In addition to the success of women through this movement, a year later, the Socialist Party of America declared this day as National Women's Day.

In 1917, during the First World War, on February 28, Russian women held a bread and peace movement. This day was March 8 in the Gregorian calendar. International Women's Day was celebrated from the same day. In 1911, International Women's Day was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In 1975, the United Nations recognized Women's Day.

Clara Zetkin was born on July 5, 1857 in Germany. At the Copenhagen Conference of the Socialist International held in 1910, the German Communist Zetkin's vigorous efforts gave the conference an international dimension. Clara also demanded that this day be a public holiday. Zetkin's father was a school teacher. Mother was a highly educated woman of French origin. Clara was influenced by socialist ideas during her studies. After her studies, Zetkin developed connections with the women's movement and the labor movement in Germany from 1847. In 1878, she joined the Samajwadi Worker Party.

After Wismarck banned socialist activities in Germany in 1878, Zetkin went to Zurich in 1882 and then returned to Paris. There she worked as a journalist and translator. In Paris she played an ego role to keep the Socialist International group alive. Her political career began when she was introduced to Osip Zetkin, whom she later married. She became committed to the party within months of attending and participating in socialist meetings. She also took the name of her lover, a Russian Jew, Osip Zetkin. Osip Zetkin was a dedicated Marxist. Osip fell seriously ill in 1889 and died in June of that year. Zetkin moved to Stuttgart with her children after losing her boyfriend.

Due to the political climate in Germany during the 1880s, Zetkin went into exile in Switzerland and later in France. A decade after her return to Germany, she became the editor of Gleichte (Equality), the Social Democratic Party of Germany's newspaper for women. She ran the newspaper for 25 years. Around 1898 Zetkin formed a friendship with the revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, which lasted for 20 years.

There was no identity between working women who aspired for social equality and the capitalist women's movement that fought for women's rights. Working women were of the opinion that the capitalist women's movement was a house of sand and had no real foundation. Working women were convinced that the question of women's emancipation was not an isolated question existing in itself, but a part of a larger social question. They believed that only after complete social transformation would the path to women's emancipation open. Zetkin saw the feminist movement as primarily composed of upper- and middle-class women, which did not align with the interests of working-class women. According to him, socialism was the only way to end the oppression of women. Among her primary goals was to get women out of the home and into work so that they could participate in trade unions and other labor rights organizations to improve their conditions. In 1920 she interviewed Lenin on the 'Women's Question'.

She addressed a gathering of activists, revolutionaries and supporters at the International Women's Peace Conference in Switzerland during World War I. She was arrested several times during the war. He was taken into protective custody in 1916, but was released due to a breach. Zetkin was the founder of the Spartacist League and the Free Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1916.

Zetkin organized the International Socialist Women's Anti-War Conference in Berlin in 1915. She was arrested several times for her anti-war views. After the German Revolution in 1919, the German Communist Party was founded. Zetkin joined it and represented the party in the lower house from 1920 to 1933. Zetkin and Paul Levy were the first Communists to enter the Lower House. The Second Communist International Conference was held in Moscow and Zetkin presided over the date of March 8 as International Women's Day. In 1925, she was elected president of the German Left Wing Solidarity Organization. When Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party took power, the German Communist Party was banned after a fire in the Lower House in 1933. Zetkin went into exile for the last time. He died in 1933 at the age of 76.

Zetkin became extremely popular after 1949. Every major German city, streets were named after him. His name can still be seen on maps of the German Democratic Republic. The train station city of Moscow is also named after him. Also, his photo was printed on German marks of ten and twenty rupees. Zetkin spent much of her career as a political figure in Germany educating women to engage politically so they could support the socialist cause. In our society, women's days are celebrated considering the form of women's movement. It will be easy to move forward by discussing the issue of women only if we can explain the reason for this. And many women would get information about the meaning of the day.