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This measure designates March 8, 2017, as International Womens Day.

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WHEREAS, International Womens Day first emerged from the activities of labor movements at the turn of the 20th century in North America and across Europe; and

WHEREAS, The first National Womans Day was observed in the United States in 1909 in honor of the 1908 garment workers strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions; and

WHEREAS, International Womens Day was marked for the first time in 1911 by Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies demanding the rights for women to vote and to hold public office, womens rights to work, to vocational training, and to an end to discrimination on the job; and

WHEREAS, In 191314, International Womens Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Womens Day on the last Sunday in February, and elsewhere in Europe, on or around March 8 of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists; and

WHEREAS, In 1917, against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for Bread and Peace on the last Sunday in February, which fell on March 8 on the Gregorian calendar. Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional government granted women the right to vote; and

WHEREAS, In 1975, during International Womens Year, the United Nations began celebrating International Womens Day on March 8; and

WHEREAS, International Womens Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international womens movement has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for womens rights and participation in the political and economic arenas; and

WHEREAS, International Womens Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change, and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities; and

WHEREAS, The United Nations has designated the theme for the 2017 International Womens Day as Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030 because the world of work is changing and these changes have significant implications for women, including globalization, technological, and digital advances, which provide great opportunities, yet the growing informality of labor, unstable livelihoods and incomes, new fiscal and trade policies and environmental impacts must be addressed in the context of womens economic empowerment; and

WHEREAS, Measures ensuring womens economic empowerment in the changing world of work must include bridging the gender pay gap, especially for women of color; recognizing womens unpaid care and domestic work, and addressing the gender deficit in care work, addressing the gender gaps in leadership, entrepreneurship, and access to social protection; and ensuring gender-responsive economic policies for job creation, poverty reduction and sustainable, inclusive growth; and

WHEREAS, International Womens Day stands as a reminder of the long history of womens social activism and organizing; fighting for equal wages, better working conditions, and the right to vote and that while women make up more than one-half of our population, they are disproportionately represented in our state; too few in leadership positions and too many who live in poverty; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature designates March 8, 2017, as International Womens Day; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.