March 8: A Brief History of International Women's Day

On March 8, 1857, hundreds of women working in clothing and textile factories in New York City protested their conditions. This action was led by mostly female immigrants from Eastern Europe. They were met by police violence and forced to disperse. This led to the first group of garment workers organizing into the labor movement. Women garment workers would not be widely organized until 1911 following a few major strikes that errupted after a tragic fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory that lead to the death of 146 men and women.

Following the 1857 demonstration, women garment workers continued to rally on March 8 for the next couple of years to commemorate their struggle. On March 8, 1908, 15,000 women marched through the streets of New York demanding shorter work hours, better pay and voting rights. The following year at the Socialist Party Conference (then a mass organization within the working class) decided to appoint a Women’s National Committee to Campaign for Suffrage and declared February 28 Women’s Day. This also made the date a day of mobilization for women’s right to vote.

In 1910, the Socialist International (also known as the 2nd Communist International) meet in Copenhagen, Denmark. A proposal was put forward by delegate Luise Zietz and supported unanimously by the female delegates, including well-known German feminist leader of the Social Democratic Party, Clara Zetkin.

As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen the previous year, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (March 19) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job. Less than a week later the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire occurred in New York that led to the mobilization of thousands of women and organizing into International Lady Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).

In 1913 and 1914, thousands of women across Europe held peace rallies on March 8 opposing the First World War.

In 1917, with 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women chose the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and peace". The rest is history: Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the Provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on February 23 on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on March 8 on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.

Following the October Russian Revolution and in honor of the role of women in that struggle, International Women’s Day secured its place on March 8 on socialist calendars. The date became official in 1921 when Bulgarian women attending the International Women's Secretariat of the 3rd Communist International and made a motion that the day be uniformly celebrated around the world. This was also pushed forward by the feminist communist Russian leader Alexandra Kollontai.

In the early days of its observance, International Women’s Day was celebrated as a socialist holiday honoring working women. With the resurgence of feminism in the late 1960s came a renewed interest in International Women’s Day. Feminists found it ready-made holiday for the celebration of women's lives and work and began promoting March 8 as such. These efforts resulted in revitalizing a holiday in countries where it had been traditionally celebrated and inspired new interest in a number of countries where the holiday had previously not been observed.