THE TRUTH ABOUT MARCH 8th
1857
The history of this day is primarily associated with the massive March strikes of textile and garment industry female workers against inhuman working conditions, 12-hour working day and low wages, which took place for the first time on March 8, 1857 in New York (USA). On this day, hundreds of women joined the demonstrations in many American cities, demanding the right to vote.
Women demanded shorter working hours, better working conditions, and equal wages with men.
Women then worked up to 16 hours a day, receiving pennies for their work. The men managed to get a ten-hour working day due to demonstrations and consequent negotiations, and trade unions were established at many enterprises in the United States.
And after that March event another trade union was established in 1857, which members were women for the first time.
1908
More than 50 years have passed, and on the last Sunday of February, thousands of women took to the streets of New York again. It can be assumed that the demonstration was timed to the 50th anniversary of the same “Women’s Day” in 1857.
Once again women demanded the electoral vote, protested against terrible working conditions, and especially against child labor. The police received an order to disperse the demonstration, for which hoses with ice water were used.
The Socialist Party of America declared National Women’s Day, which has been celebrated on the last Sunday of February in New York, Chicago, Montreal and other American cities until 1913.
1910
German socialist and activists Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin proposed to declare International Women’s Day at the International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen. Although they did not name an official date, Clara Zetkin suggested that every country should have a day that symbolizes the struggle for women’s rights.
A resolution proposed by Clara Zetkin stated:
“In complete agreement with the class-conscious political trade unions of the proletariat in every country, the socialist women of all countries annually celebrate a Women’s Day, which primarily serves the purpose of campaigning for women’s electoral vote. This demand must be put forward as part of women’s topic as a whole and to get fully in line with socialist views. Women’s Day should be celebrated globally, and it should be thoroughly prepared everywhere.”
March 19, 1911
Over 1 million women in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark marched and participated in demonstrations, protesting against discrimination and demanding equal rights with men to work, to participate in elections, to get education and professional training.
1912-1915
Women from the Netherlands, France, Sweden and Russia also joined the protests. Slogans demanding to end the war appeared among other ones.
International Women’s Day was first celebrated in St. Petersburg. It was stated in a petition addressed to the mayor that an “…academic morning meeting on women’s issues” was planned to be held.
The authorities gave permission, and on March 2, 1913, one and a half thousand people gathered in the premises of the Kalashnikov Bread Exchange on Poltavska Street. The agenda of the event listed the following questions: the right to vote for women, state motherhood support, high cost of life.
1913
The International Women’s Day celebration was finally set on March 8 in Europe.
In the same year, the first celebration of International Women’s Day took place in Ukraine, which was part of Russian Empire then. On this day, Russian Social Democratic Workers’ party was handing out proclamations with the seal of its local committee in Kyiv, calling on female workers to go on strike on February 23 (March 8) to protest against the oppression of women. To celebrate International Women’s Day, the “Female Worker” (Rabotnitsa in English) magazine was founded by an order of V. Lenin.
1914
1917
On February 23 (March 8 according to the modern calendar), the February Revolution began with women’s mass protests.
Women took to the streets of St. Petersburg with “Bread and Peace” slogans to protest against unbearable living conditions, war and hunger. They demanded bread and the return of their men from the frontline, and opposed tsarism.
The demonstration was supported by 200,000 workers with a general strike throughout the city. This huge women’s strike is considered a decisive event of the February Revolution in Russia. After 4 days, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated, and the provisional government guaranteed women the right to vote.
In March 1917, the women of Russia received the right to vote, and the Constitution of 1918 proclaimed political equality as the Soviet government began to implement it.
The first celebration of March 8 took place in Soviet Ukraine. It was celebrated in a certain way in all Ukrainian regions. “Celebration of March 8” was only the third line out of five on the agenda of the meeting of regional event organizers on February 20, where women of Kharkiv Regional Committee headed by V. A. Moirova appealed to K. M. Samoilova with the request to explain the meaning of March 8, and the essence of the celebration was reduced to concerts, lectures, setting up of a cheap buffet, distribution of literature, leaflets, and request to the People’s Commissariat for dismissal of female employees starting from lunch on this day.
On February 26-28, it was already known that by the decree of the Labor Commissariat everyone was released for the whole day. Moreover, in the telegram marked as “Military and Urgent” it was stated that female employees have a free day, but it is necessary to engage them in the “communist movement of the proletariat”, and all of the proposed activities were limited to those of propagandistic nature only.
The speech topics differentiated by gender. It was advised that men should listen to speech regarding current tasks of female employees, and women should be subjected to speech regarding history of International Women’s Day and its significance, and tasks of the female workers and then everyone should jointly attend concerts from 5 to 10 AM followed by festive march.
1920
More details in Marina Voronina’s article.
“8 March and Bolsheviks in 1917-1924 (geological research).”
The Museum of Women’s and Gender History expresses thanks to Marina Voronina for the information provided.
Marina Voronina is a candidate of historical sciences and associate professor of the Department of World History at the H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. She is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Researchers of Women’s History.
1921
Emphasis shifted on “international situation”: all articles in the “Visti” newspaper had common general heading addressing international union of proletarian women, who should be the key to the victory of labor over capital. The “International Female Workers Day” page talked about female Ukrainian workers, who joined the Ukrainian Federation of the Communist Party of America founded in 1918 and worked illegally there.
This year, the celebration began in the evening of March 7, and on March 8, the workers were dismissed two hours before the end of work day. At 2 PM the official celebration began, where theses for the speech were presented for the first time and for many years the same theses circulated throughout the consequent speeches, in which the role of females in the beginning of February revolution was mentioned. However, the party was too distracted by the coming proclaimed unity of the party and NEP at the 10th party congress (March 8-16, 1921) to pay attention to March 8 celebration.
1922
The tradition of a large-scale celebration of International Women’s Day is being consolidated. After the 11th Party Congress, during the period of unemployment, when mostly women are fired, significant part of women got jobs at women’s departments as organizers who helped other women to keep or get a job.
In the following years, March 8 was still celebrated by women’s departments out of inertia, but with the beginning of industrialization, the date was gradually overtaken by local authorities and lost its status of a major holiday and connection to feminist movement, and its essence was replaced.
This holiday became so isolated and perceived as just a day for women to do something for themselves, that even before it was declared an official day off in May 1965, it was never mentioned as a regular holiday in the period of 1960 – 1980, and one can only see few lines about this day in the description of national holidays. Since it was never appropriated as a Soviet core holiday, it got filled with patriarchal meaning later, and the initial idea of solidarity of working women protecting their own rights completely diminished.
1920s
