Every year on March 8 is International Women's Day - and has been for over 100 years! But where does this day come from? What has been achieved so far? And why is International Women's Day still so important?

As early as 1910, at the Second International Socialist Women's Conference in Copenhagen, it was decided to introduce an International Women's Day. The first International Women's Day in Europe took place on March 19, 1911. The main demand in the first years was women's suffrage. For years, millions of women demonstrated for this - with success. In Austria, active and passive women's suffrage came into force in 1918. Since 1921, International Women's Day has taken place annually on March 8. In demonstrations and rallies all over the world, women have been drawing attention to their disadvantages ever since, and today they demand in particular de facto equality of women and men, an end to discrimination in the workplace and a life free of violence.

Women's rights have of course improved considerably in Austria in recent years. Since 1957, the Maternity Protection Act has prohibited the employment of women for a period before and after the birth of a child. In the 1970s, family law was reformed to the effect that a husband can no longer forbid his wife to work. In addition, the wife no longer has to take the husband's name when they get married. In 1989, unmarried mothers were given equal rights to married mothers. To name just a few achievements. 

Today, International Women's Day is particularly about equal rights for women and men. Although the constitution in Austria guarantees equality between women and men, this is not always a matter of course in everyday life and therefore there are specific laws to protect the interests of women.

The Equal Treatment Act aims, among other things, to establish equality between women and men in connection with an employment relationship and in other fields of work. In this context, the principle of equal treatment states that no one may be discriminated against on the basis of gender. Accordingly, it is a case of direct discrimination if women experience less favourable treatment than men experience, have experienced or would experience in a comparable situation because of their gender. Indirect discrimination, on the other hand, is when women are not obviously discriminated against on the basis of their gender, but are disadvantaged on the basis of an apparently neutral regulation. This is the case, for example, if part-time employees are denied certain rights in a company and at the same time mainly women work part-time in this company. 

However, the Equal Treatment Act also standardises equal treatment of women and men in access to and supply of goods and services and prohibits unequal treatment of women and men in these areas. Therefore, it is a violation of the principle of equal treatment, for example, if women pay considerably more than men for a short haircut, if women have to pay a higher insurance premium due to the fact that they could become pregnant, or if misogynistic jokes are told in a driving school during a lecture.

If women are affected by such discrimination, they have claims for damages, elimination of discrimination as well as compensation for pecuniary loss and compensation for the personal impairment suffered. In order to enforce these claims, women can file an application with the Equal Treatment Commission or file a complaint with the Labour and Social Court or the competent district court.

Various inequalities have already been eliminated in the past and the legal, cultural and economic situation of women has fortunately improved significantly. Today, International Women's Day should not only remind us of these important achievements, but also help us to achieve equality between women and men at all levels in the future.