Many of us do not know of the significance of the international women’s day, or how it came into being. Even Google’s front-page results show 1965 or 1967 as the year it started, but the actual history of the women’s day revolution started in 1886.
There has been a relentless struggle for women’s rights throughout history. Today, parity somewhat exists because of those women who fought for posterity. Today, we feel like we can raise our voices against sexism and discrimination because of their work.
Women, who were oppressed in the past and not allowed to grow, can provide a lot of the required resources for the sustainability of this world today.
The details of how it started, and the various movements and conferences which brought about a revolution, are all explained in a book by R Jawahar titled: “The Real History of International Women’s Day and March 8”.
Which Events Led To The International Women’s Day?
It all started with a strike on May 1, 1886, in Chicago, for an eight-hour workday. It was a national movement started by Chicago unionists and workers. The socialists started celebrating May 1 as “May Day” henceforth.
With the help of Fedrick Engels, a conference was formed in Paris in 1889. Clara Zetkin and Eleanor Marx (Karl Marx’s daughter) were present there, among other Marxists. Zetkin raised the issues of working women at the conference.
Since 1890, May Day has also been celebrated as international workers’ day. This also started the socialist women’s movement. The first conference of socialist women was held on August 17, 1907.
Their main demand was universal suffrage. Zetkin was elected secretary of the International Women’s Secretariat. She was also the editor of the magazine “Die Gleichheit” (equality).
The Origins Of The International Women’s Day
A mass movement was held by the Socialist Party of America at the Garrick Theatre, Chicago, on May 3, 1908. Also, “women suffrage demonstration” and “women suffrage meeting” were held in the US on February 28, 1909.
The second conference of socialist women was held on August 26-27, 1910. Clara Zetkin presided over the conference. Resolutions regarding women’s right to vote, maternity insurance, protection of mothers and their children against the war, were passed.
This was the real origin of the “international women’s day” as we know it.
The socialist women celebrated the first women’s day on March 19, 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. In 1912, it was celebrated on May 12 (a Sunday) in many countries including Germany and Sweden.
Rosa Luxemburg was the representative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. In 1913, women’s day was marked on March 2 (also a Sunday). Russia participated for the first time this year. In 1914, on March 8, many were arrested in Russia. Workers gathered at Troitskii Bridge shouting: “We greet women’s day.”
In 1915, from March 26-28, the conference was convened by Zetkin in Bern, Switzerland. A manifesto titled “To the Women of the Proletariat” was released. Demands to stop the first world war were made, and Zetkin was imprisoned on charges of treason.
The Significance Of March 8
“No more tears! No more silence!” The working women of the textile factories of the Vyborg region, a suburb of Petrograd in Russia, protested using such slogans on March 8, 1917.
One of the women with a red band on her chest shouted: “Comrades, enough discussion! Come into the streets and we will ask for bread and freedom!”
The workers joined the women. This is known as the “February Revolution” in Russia because it was February 28, according to the old-style Julian calendar.
The global feminist movement adopted the international women’s day the late 1960s, while the United Nations adopted it in 1977.
The struggle is still on and it will go on till we acquire equal status for women, universally. With all of us working together for the cause of gender equality, regardless of our gender or race, the possibility of a better future is inevitable. For a sustainable future, gender equality is the way to go!
