Why women still agitate and seriously campaign for equal rights with the men, even as they are in leadership positions across board is fast becoming a subject of regular discourse on the table.
Similar agitations have been in existence long before the famous Beijing conference. Interestingly, one of such strong campaigns actually resulted in one of the most loving and celebrated occasions in favour of and for the masculine gender which is widely known globally, is the Fathers’ Day Celebration. It’s only natural for for the feminine gender to close the gap.

So, what happens if the men know that the origin of this fun-filled day is personal and primarily due to a woman’s efforts at questioning why a Father’s Day didn’t exist when there was a Mother’s Day?
According to India Express, in her agitation and quest, she launched a decade-long campaign to honour the memory of her father.
Welcome to the history behind the largely celebrated Father’s Day which comes up on every third Sunday of June.
Sonora Smart Dodd is the American woman who first marked the day in 1910 as a tribute to her father, William Jackson Smart, who had lost his wife (Sonora’s mum)
The widower man was recorded as a US Civil War of 1861-1865) who raised Sonora and her five other siblings.

The India Express reports that in 1909, young Sonora was listening to a church sermon on Mother’s Day, marked annually on the second Sunday of May. Her great-granddaughter Betsy Roddy told the Associated Press in 2017 that the incident “bugged her”. “She thought, ‘Well, why isn’t there a Father’s Day?’”
Interestingly, the origins of Mother’s Day are similar, involving a daughter passionate about preserving their parent’s memory. Activist Anna Jarvis’s mother spent her life working for causes centred around motherhood, such as teaching mothers sanitation to prevent child mortality, and forming a community of mothers from both sides of the Civil War divide to work for peace.
Jarvis decided to campaign for the cause of Mother’s Day and sought to fix a date close to May 9 — the date of her mother’s passing in 1905. She wrote numerous letters to politicians, businessmen, and church leaders to enlist their support for her cause, proposing the second Sunday of May. Following her attempts, some local events were held in 1908. Eventually, US President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill in 1914 to formally recognise Mother’s Day as an official holiday in the country.

Sonora Smart Dodd’s initial efforts led the local clergy and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) to come on board, and they had their first Father’s Day in Spokane, Washington, in 1910. But it would take a few more decades of lobbying for the day to become more mainstream.

US Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, and Lyndon B. Johnson also supported such a day of commemoration. In a 1966 proclamation, Johnson wrote: “In the homes of our Nation, we look to the fathers to provide the strength and stability which characterize the successful family. If the father’s responsibilities are many, his rewards are also great— the love, appreciation, and respect of children and spouse. It is the desire to acknowledge publicly these feelings we have for the fathers of our Nation that has inspired the Congress to call for the formal observance of Father’s Day.”

However, this did not accord it the status of an official holiday. That would only happen under President Richard Nixon.

In a proclamation issued on May 1, 1972, Nixon wrote: “Our identity in name and nature, our roots in home and family, our very standard of manhood—all this and more is the heritage our fathers share with us. It is a rich patrimony, one for which adequate thanks can hardly be offered in a lifetime, let alone a single day. Still it has long been our national custom to observe each year one special Sunday in honor of America’s fathers; and from this year forward, by a joint resolution of the Congress approved April 24, 1972, that custom carries the weight of law.”

Why is Father’s Day celebrated on the third Sunday of June?
In Nixon’s presidential proclamation, June 18 was the chosen date of celebration. Back in 1910, Sonora is believed to have brought a petition before the Spokane YMCA, suggesting fathers be recognised during services on June 5 (her father’s birthday). But because there wasn’t enough time to prepare, the event was rescheduled for June 19. This led to an approximate designated day for future celebrations.