Women’s Day was a result of several socialist movements, which demanded voting rights for women and better working conditions. Here is a brief history.
March 8 was marked as Women’s Day by the United Nations in 1975 and officially recognised as such two years later. While countries across the world have since celebrated the day, its roots go much further back.
The UN’s official website says that the first National Woman’s Day was first observed in the United States on February 28, 1909. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of “the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.” Around 15,000 women marched that day for shorter hours of work, better pay and voting rights, the International Women’s Day (IWD) website says.
For many years after that, the last Sunday of February would be marked as Women’s Day. But these were not isolated events, they came amid what is now seen as the First Wave of Feminism. Additionally, some critics believe that the focus on this event overshadows similar initiatives made in erstwhile Soviet and Communist countries. Here’s their brief history.
Early feminism in the US and Europe
The New York protest was preceded by many events that marked a shift in the fight for women’s rights. First Wave Feminism (from the mid-19th century to the 1920s) saw the very first campaigns for equality in terms of voting rights, pay and other fundamental issues in the West.
As early as 1848, Americans Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott staged the first women’s rights convention in New York, after they were denied a chance to speak at an anti-slavery convention. Mott was a staunch campaigner against slavery, while Stanton was a renowned feminist in her own right. In her 1892 speech titled ‘The Solitude of Self’, she laid down the reasons why women deserved to have equal rights:
“The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties… is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.”
“No matter how much women prefer to lean, to be protected and supported, nor how much men desire to have them do so, they must make the voyage of life alone, and for safety in an emergency, they must know something of the laws of navigation… It matters not whether the solitary voyager is man or woman; nature, having endowed them equally, leaves them to their own skill and judgment in the hour of danger, and, if not equal to the occasion, alike they perish.”
In Europe, too, socialist feminist movements had begun to take shape.
The IWD website notes, “In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands.” Zetkin was a well-regarded speaker, who saw workers’ movements as the only way for women to have their rights. The Guardian noted in a report that her obituary in the Manchester Guardian termed her the “grandmother of communism”.
With over 100 women from 17 countries in attendance at the conference, Zetkin’s suggestion was accepted. In 1911, more than “one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination” in countries across Europe. Thus, there was a growing recognition for having a day of commemoration.
Why March 8?
Russian women protested the possibility of a World War (1914 to 1918) on February 23, 1913, as per the Julian calendar that was then in use in Russia. According to the Gregorian calendar, which was much more widely accepted elsewhere, that date translated as March 8. The day thus became the global benchmark and rallies began to be held on the day in many countries.
Another such Sunday fell on February 23, 1917, as per the Julian calendar. On this day, Russian women protested against the ongoing war and shortages of food and other essentials under Czar Nicholas’s regime.
Historian and activist Rochelle Ruthchild of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies told Time Magazine how the 1917 protests were unique: “Women were mostly the ones on the breadline, and were the core protesters,” she said.
She added, “In fact, male revolutionaries like [Leon] Trotsky were upset at them, as these disobedient and misbehaving women were going out on this International Women’s Day when they were meant to wait until May,” which is when Workers’ Day is marked.
The protests would also help galvanise public opinion against the monarchy and just a few days later, the Russian Revolution removed the Czars and a communist state was established. Women also gained the right to vote in Russia that year, while white American women got it in 1920. Women of colour faced hurdles and would only be able to vote after the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed.
In 2011, the Barack Obama administration also decided to proclaim March as ‘Women’s History Month’.
“This year, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present, and future. International Women’s Day is a chance to pay tribute to ordinary women throughout the world and is rooted in women’s centuries-old struggle to participate in society on an equal footing with men. This day reminds us that, while enormous progress has been made, there is still work to be done before women achieve true parity,” the then-US President said in a statement.
Source: Indian Express, 8/03/24
