International Working Women's Day

The Women's Day is International Working Women's Day, which commemorates the more than 140 women who died in a fire at the Triangle lingerie factory in New York in 1911. From March 8, 1909, the United States Chicago labor women strike parade rally since, to the 21st century, "March 8" women's Day has gone through more than a hundred years of history.

The origin of International Working Women's Day

On March 8, 1857, women garment and textile workers in New York City staged a protest against inhumane working conditions, a 12-hour workday and low wages. The marchers were rounded up and dispersed by the police. Two years later, in March, the women organized their first union.

On March 8, 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay, the right to vote, and a ban on child labor. Their slogan was "Bread and roses", with bread symbolizing economic security and roses symbolizing a better quality of life. In May, the Socialist Party of America decided to observe national Women's Day on the last Sunday of February.

"International Working Women's Day" development history

The concept of International Women's Day originated at the beginning of the 20th century, when the international society was in a period of industrialization, with a rapidly growing population, radical ideology, and very turbulent social conditions.

On March 8, 1909, women workers in Chicago, Illinois, and workers in the national textile and clothing industry held a huge strike and demonstration, demanding an increase in wages, the implementation of the 8-hour working day and the right to vote. This was the first organized mass struggle of working women in history, which fully demonstrated the strength of working women. The struggle received widespread sympathy and warm response from women in the whole country and even other countries in the world, and finally won the victory.

International Women's Day has been celebrated for nearly 100 years since 1911, when more than 1 million people across Europe held events to celebrate it. Like women's struggles for their rights, women's Day has been boycotted. In 1930s Germany, Adolf Hitler banned Women's Day. Recently, the famous German female historian Matazade disclosed the relevant history.

On a gloomy night in 1932, a middle-aged man with a moustache and shiny black hair was pointing with a few of his men at a map on a table beside a photograph of a genial old man in German national dress at the luxury Berlin mansion called The Hugo. Hitler, along with Goebbels and other Nazi partisans, was planning a spectacular plan to assassinate Clara Zetkin, the founder of the German Communist Party, one of the founders of the Second International and known worldwide as the mother of the International Women's Movement.

Clara Zetkin was born in Saxony in central Germany. She attended the Women's Faculty Institute as a girl and graduated with honors in 1878. At that time, Clara met the Russian revolutionary Osip Zetkin and became a Marxist. In the same year, "iron and blood Chancellor" Bismarck promulgated the "Anti-socialist Extraordinary Law", Clara and expelled from Germany Osip together in exile in Paris. The couple married in 1883.

In 1889, Ossip died, Clara Zetkin endured grief to attend the "100th anniversary of the French Revolution" commemoration conference, delivered a "for the Liberation of Women" keynote speech. Since then, Clara Zetkin has become known as "the most moving orator" in the world, and has spent her life campaigning to overthrow the current system and achieve the liberation of people and women. In August 1910, at the International Women's Congress, Zetkin proposed to set a day as International Women's Day, in order to unite women of all countries to fight together, which received positive response from the delegates. On March 19, more than 1 million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland celebrate International Women's Day. Before the outbreak of World War I, women in Europe also took to the streets on March 8, 1913, holding peace rallies and other forms against the war.

Thanks to Zetkin's efforts, German women were given the right to vote in November 1918. The slogan of the women's liberation movement began to take hold. This made Hitler very afraid and angry. He said, "These ladies will probably ruin our future." The party also wrote contempt for women into its platform: women must be "liberated from the women's liberation movement." Hitler also said privately that reviving Germany was "a man's business". Zetkin was not impressed, and in 1932 he traveled from Moscow to Berlin to open the Reichstag. At the time, the Nazis hated Zetkin and threatened to kill her if she dared to preside over the convention. Zetkin was undeterred, believing that the voice of the working people must be heard in such a reactionary Congress. When the final bell rang for the opening of Parliament, Zetkin stepped up to the podium. She even declared: "A vote for Hitler is a vote for war". Given the circumstances, Hitler did not assassinate Zetkin. Zetkin died in Moscow on June 20, 1933.

In 1910, the Socialist International conference in Copenhagen decided to establish a women's day as a tribute to the achievements of the women's movement. The program was designated by more than 100 women from 17 countries, including the first three women to vote in Finland's parliament. But no exact date was set at that meeting.

In 1911, Women's Day was established on March 19 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, and more than one million people took part in rallies on the day. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they also demanded equal access to work and job training, and the elimination of gender discrimination in the workplace.

Less than a week later, tragedy struck in New York on March 25, when a fire killed more than 140 female workers, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. The event put great pressure on the US government, and the disaster caused by poor working conditions cannot be ignored. International Women's Day is on the table.

In 1913-1914, during the peace movement on the eve of World War I, Russian women celebrated their first holiday on the last Sunday of February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, in the years that followed, women gathered around March 8 to express their solidarity against the war.

In 1917, with more than two million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose to go on strike for Bread and Peace on the last Sunday of February. In defiance of the government, women took to the streets. Four days later the tsar had to abdicate, and the provisional government gave women the right to vote. The historic Sunday falls on February 23 in the Roman Gregorian calendar, while it falls on March 8 in the Gregorian calendar used in other countries.

Established "March 8 Women's Day" after the major events

1977: Support for women's right to work.

1978: Right to freedom of reproductive choice. "I'm not a birth machine!" The majority of women demand the right to choose to have a child and to have an abortion freely.

1978: Sydney Women's Day Movement.

Women march during a rally at Port Adelaide in Sydney in 1978.

1981: Women's Day movement in Melbourne. The women of Melbourne called for the right of women to be free and emancipated.

1984: Women have the right to participate in politics. Women gathered and marched in their own festivals, demanding women's right to participate in politics, and women's right to vote for parliament.

1984: Women's liberation rights and freedom. Women are united in their strong demand for women's liberation and freedom.

1998: Elimination of discrimination against women and advancement of women.

In July 1998, Salma Khan, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, addressed a press conference on progress and problems in improving the status and enjoyment of human rights for women.

Women are born beautiful and great

Thank them for their outstanding contributions in all aspects

For not backing down on women's rights

And more importantly, each of us

To treat every woman correctly and equally