5 Things You Need to Know About International Women's Day

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. In recognition, we are breaking down the history of the holiday and sharing our thoughts on how it is and perhaps should be recognized.

  1. The popular origin story of International Women's Day is more myth than fact.

  2. The real history of International Women's Day is that it began as a socialist holiday!

  3. International Women's Day helped spark the Russian Revolution!

  4. In the 1960s, second wave feminists adopted the day as their own.

  5. The 2022 theme is #BreaktheBias.

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Episode Resources

Transcript

Audio Playback [00:00:09] Without help from man, even against the will of men the women rallied under the socialist banner. Under this banner, they will struggle for emancipation, for recognition of their rights as human beings. Just as the worker is subjugated by the capitalist, so woman is subjugated by man. And she will remain subjugated as long as she is not economically independent. 

Sarah [00:00:42] This is Sarah Stewart Holland. 

Beth [00:00:43] And this is Beth Silvers. 

Sarah [00:00:45] Thank you for joining us for Pantsuit Politics. Welcome to Pantsuit Politics, where we try to take a different approach to the news. We understand that, like us, all of you are consumed with the war in Ukraine, especially the attacks upon civilians. Sometimes a different approach to the news means taking a small step back so we don't consume the news about real people from a place of spiraling anxiety. So that's what we're going to do today. Today, we're going to learn about International Women's Day, which is March 8th, the day this episode comes out. What exactly are we celebrating on International Women's Day? How does one correctly celebrate International Women's Day? What's the history of this day? Why is it strangely relevant to the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine? We hope to answer that and much more on today's episode. 

Beth [00:01:44] Before we get started, don't forget that our big live show in Waco, Texas, is approaching rapidly. It's going to be such a fun night with our friend Clint Harp and Kelly Harp. We're going to celebrate the launch of our next book Now What, which you will be able to get early at the event before it is available in bookstores. You can leave the event with a signed copy that night. Tickets are on sale now and you can purchase them through the link in our show notes. We would love to see you there. 

Sarah [00:02:19] Five things you need to know about International Women's Day. First, the popular origin story of International Women's Day is really more myth than fact. So, Beth, let's tell the myth first. 

Beth [00:02:35] This is what I had always heard that there was this garment worker protests in New York City in March of 1857, where women were demanding improved working conditions. They were complaining about their 10-hour days. They wanted equal rights and their ranks were broken up by the police that this march was really brutally kind of put down by police officers. 

Sarah [00:02:58] And that's what I started to look for. Like, I was like, okay, well, I need some color. Give me some real life details about this huge garment march. Like, how did it come about? How did start? What really happened? Were there any individual human stories we could tell from this, you know, original march back in 1957? Except the problem is when you Google march 8th 1957 garment workers strike, all you get is stories about International Women's Day origin. There's no actual historical record of this march. So then the next thing the story goes is that in 1907, to mark the 50th anniversary of that original March, 15,000 women marched through New York City, demanding better pay, shorter hours, the right to vote and National Women's Day was born around that time. But, again, no real historical record of either marches. And here's why. . The second thing you need to know about International Women's Day. The real history of International Women's Day is that it began as a socialist, arguably communist holiday. 

Beth [00:04:02] Yes. So everybody buckle your seatbelts here in America where so much is influenced by Christianity. So you have to understand that a very common tactic of socialists and progressives in the early 1900s was establishing secular holidays to bring the community together around a common set of values. And these secular holidays would usually take place on Sundays so that people wouldn't miss work. So the initiative to organize a National Women's Day began in February of 1909 and was led by a Ukrainian born American labor and suffragist activist, Teresa Malkiel. She was the head of the Women's National Committee of the S.P.A, and she was an incredible human who began her life as a factory worker. Her 1910 novel, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker, is credited with helping to reform New York state labor laws. So she was a force of nature, and she really began Women's Day as a worker's holiday to advance a socialist agenda. 

Sarah [00:05:16] And I learned this fun trivia fact about her. Her only daughter, Henrietta Poynter, founded Congressional Quarterly. How interesting is that? 

Beth [00:05:23] That is fun. 

Sarah [00:05:24] Okay. So it gets started with the Socialist Party in America. Then it really catches on in Europe in particular, Clara Zetkin, who comes up a lot in the like old myths story, they just wipe her entire history with the Socialist and Communist Party from that biography. So she was the editor of the German Social Democratic Party's women's newspaper Gleichheit. But don't get the idea that Clara was a feminist because she was not. She was very opposed to what she called Bourgeois Feminism. And this is a quote,"The working women who aspire to social equality expect nothing for their emancipation from the bourgeois women's movement, which allegedly fights for the rights of women. That edifice is built on sand and has no real basis. Working women are absolutely convinced that the question of the emancipation of women is not an isolated question which exists in itself, but part of a great social question. 

[00:06:22] They realize perfectly clear that this question can never be solved in contemporary society, but only after a complete social transformation." So she sees the promise of International Women's Day and proposes one at the International Conference for Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910. There are about 100 women there from 17 countries, and she suggested making an International Women's Day, and it was adopted unanimously. The resolution on Women's Day read an agreement with the class conscious, political and trade union organizations of the proletariat of their respective countries. Socialists women of all nationalities have to organize a special women's day, which must, above all, promote the propaganda of female suffrage. This demand must be discussed in connection with the whole women's question, according to the socialist conception. 

Beth [00:07:10] I'm shocked that we've never learned this history. Shocked actually.  

Sarah [00:07:13] I'm surprised this proletariat language isn't in all these origin stories. 

Beth [00:07:18] So International Women's Day takes place the next year on March 19th. This was the 40th anniversary of the Paris Commune, a radical socialist government that briefly ruled France in 1871. 

Sarah [00:07:31] So there's a 1800 history we were looking for. 

Beth [00:07:33] Over a million women from across Europe participated. World War One had really brought social organizing to a halt, but socialist women persisted to the point of getting arrested. Clara, who we were talking about just a minute ago, led a gathering of socialist women from neutral and warring countries to demonstrate against the war. And so we're talking about events located in Europe, around socialist ideology, a worker's movement, the impact of war and violence. You know, this is the real history of International Women's Day. On the March 7th, 1915 Clara Zetkin organized a huge demonstration of women in Bern, Switzerland, against the war. During this event, a manifesto was released which was addressed to the women and proletariat and declared that the workers have nothing to gain from the war. They have everything to lose, everything. Everything that is dear to them. The manifesto also exhorted women to take action to win peace. 

Sarah [00:08:38] What's really interesting, as I was reading a lot of the historical analysis, one historian cited French feminist as saying, the reason that people like Clara Zetkin weren't feminist is because they felt like women held no right to equality outside their status as workers. But Klara had this other argument that was like, yes, they do have the right to equality as the status of workers. But she really pushed this like suffrage above all else that actually has to take priority over these sort of working people concerns. That like suffrage is the unifying theme. And it's interesting, as different as this sounds to us in America, I feel like if you read this struggle, this particular history of International Women's Day, there are so many similarities to the fight for suffrage in America. And there's like all this cross-pollination even to the colors. Like the colors of International Women's Day are white, green and purple, and the white comes from the British women's suffrage movement. 

[00:09:42] And also like that issue of, like, do we protest through the war? Do we push for suffrage? Do we push for our concerns? Do we protest the war because it's so unpopular and it puts us at risk even to the like the history of marching, the history of like taking to the streets and striking as a way to draw attention to your concerns? I thought all that was so interesting because as different as some of the sounds, I mean, first you have to realize too  that just there was a socialist party in America in the early 1800s. It was very common. Like, I mean, don't know, very common is the right word, but it was there. It was important and it was politically impactful for sure and that progressive movement. And to see like the similar tactics to the use of these holidays, the presence of socialism in America, it was  interesting to see that particular history, which I know pretty well from the suffrage movement in America, from this international perspective. 

Beth [00:10:33] As I was preparing, I went back to look at Helen Todd's remarks about bread and roses. If you haven't heard this quote before it, it goes with your point, Sarah, that suffrage was Clara Zetkin  focus. Helen Todd was talking about suffrage as well, and she said, not at once, but woman is the mothering element in the world. And her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's bread, which is home shelter and security, and the roses of life, music, education, nature and books shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country and the government of which she has a voice. [Music] 

Sarah [00:11:25] I'm going to take a real right turn here, but follow me. Have you watched Ali Wong's new comedy special? 

Beth [00:11:30] Mm-Mh. 

Sarah [00:11:31] It's a gift to humanity. And she has this bit where she says, "We were sold a lie. They taught us we wanted it all. We wanted family and work." She's like, I don't want just want equal rights to work and family. I want equal pleasure. And she does this whole bit about like, I don't want just family and work. I want it all. And I think that's what that reminds me of is this idea of, like, you know, pushing back against the idea that women are one thing or they are in one sphere, especially that was so predominant in the early 20th century. So Bread and Rose is just a different form. 

Beth [00:12:02] Bread and roses. 

Sarah [00:12:18] Okay, the third thing we want you to know is that International Women's Day helped spark the Russian Revolution. Did you know this, Beth? 

Beth [00:12:27] I didn't. I loved learning this history. 

Sarah [00:12:31] It was wild. So we have International Women's Days taking place in America and Europe than in 1917. The women of Russia celebrated International Women's Day with a strike demanding bread for peace. They were protesting a lot of things. They were protesting rising rents, out of control food prices, and they'd lost two million Russian soldiers in World War One. They were still a monarchy. They were still being ruled by the czar. So what started as a march and became a strike, then it two days later, it was basically a revolt, and the czars or Nicholas the second ordered the military to shoot women, if necessary, to kill the protests. But it was already too late. By March 12th, czar Nicholas the second was forced to abdicate. This was a piece of trivia that I found really interesting. The provisional government, after the abdication in Russia, was the first major power to grant women the right to vote. 

[00:13:27] Soviet leader and intellectual Alexandra Calamity called it the day on which the Russian women raised the torch of proletarian revolution and set the world on fire. And while Leon Trotsky called it the day which inaugurated the revolution. So then Clara comes back. So Clara now is a predominant figure in the Communist Party in Russia, and you see all these communist countries start to mark International Women's Day. They're like official holidays in Russia and in China. And she is a real hero to the communist movement, particularly in the German Democratic Republic, a.k.a. East Germany. There's like a street named after her in every major city. There's still a memorial bust of her in Dresden. She was like on the money in the German Democratic Republic. So that's where Clara comes back around and visits a second time. 

Beth [00:14:13] The fourth thing we want you to know is that, things get shaken up in the 1960s. So we've had the 50s when we all really freak out about communism and socialism in the United States. 

Sarah [00:14:24] You don't think they wanted to keep this original origin story in the midst of the Cold War? I can't  Imagine why not. 

Beth [00:14:29] I think that's why we learn about the garment workers all the time in New York. So 1960s second wave feminists come around and adopt this day as their own. And before we really get into this, Sarah, will you do a little brief synopsis for people who don't know what second wave feminism means of just how we should understand that term? 

Sarah [00:14:47] So second, my feminism kicks off with Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique. The first wave feminism, which is really cited as like the suffragists, I mean, that movement and getting women the right to vote. And then second wave feminism comes around mid 20th century and says we have the political right to vote, but we're still locked out of the financial systems. We have no rights with inside of our marriage. There's some real social problems. You see it gets tied up with the sexual revolution. It's also a white woman's movement predominantly. Like it's that's the critique of second white feminism, that it was racist and homophobic, and that it was a very sort of limited perspective on women and women's rights. 

Beth [00:15:30] Historian Temma Kaplan, thinks the source of second wave feminist adopting this holiday was a group of scholars at the University of Chicago who had grown up in the socialist movement. In 1975, the United Nations officially adopted the idea of International Women's Day to market as a way to celebrate the achievements and contributions and acceleration of women across social, cultural, economic and political fields. But when you look at the countries that officially observe International Women's Day, it is still concentrated in socialist countries, former Soviet states. You see this as an official holiday in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. These countries and Ukraine celebrates International Women's Day. It almost has the flavor of Mother's Day there. 

[00:16:21] I read this blog post about what to do if you are in Ukraine for International Women's Day, and it's suggested breakfast in bed, flowers, that this is a day to lavish compliments on women. It should feel like the ultimate day of rest for women in Ukraine. And so that particularly struck me given how International Women's Day is going to exist in Ukraine this year. Just to think of something with that level of significance socially occurring in the midst of Russian aggression, as you tie this origin story around it, it takes on a really different meaning than sort of the weird, happy International Women's Day messages that go out on social media in the United States. 

Sarah [00:17:05] Well, I think it's so many things. You know, Russia's the same way. It's a big holiday there, it's like half their floral buying for the year is on International Women's Day. As I was reading the history, I thought, man, I hope the women of Russia, especially women protesting this war, like tap this history and think they're like, this is how it kicked off as the women, and particularly after a conflict saying, that's enough. We're not doing this anymore. Now, I don't want it to lead to a violent overthrow that leads to a communist regime that kills millions of people. But I thought that history was interesting. And yeah, you know, the way that it's become detached from its history is why it always felt like a weird holiday to me. When you say mark a day to celebrate the achievements, contributions and acceleration of women across the social, cultural, economic and political fields, well, that's everything. 

[00:17:56]  Everything that half the world's population has achieved that seems bananas, right? That's too much. It's too much to celebrate. I think the way it's become detached from the history is why it feels like that. And I think it's not surprising that the United Nations was looking for something around 1975 to make women feel included. That's not surprising. And so that it got kind of swept up into this second wave of feminism. But in detaching it from its revolutionary roots, you kind of detach it from its power as a moment, as a holiday, and it just becomes this sort of corporatized, you know, innocuous nothing. 

Beth [00:18:38] Well, we do this a lot, right, where we decide that the symbolic is the most important thing happening, and that's how I've always felt about International Women's Day. It feels like a symbolic crum a little bit. And the history here tells us that these women weren't looking for symbolic gestures. They were looking for real power, the real exercise of power at work, the real exercise of power in society. I was reading where one woman said, yes, women should have equal rights in the home, but the home should extend beyond her walls. The home should be the entirety of the nation in which she lives. And I think that's why it just has always felt weird. Honestly, we're going into the fifth thing that you need to know. It still feels weird to me the way that it is observed on this international kind of web-based level. 

Sarah [00:19:31] Yes, the first thing you need to know is the 2022 theme for International Women's Day is hashtag break the bias. Imagine a gender equal world, a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, a world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together, we can forge women's equality. Collective we can all hashtag break the bias. There's even a break the bias pose where you make an X with your hands. But like as I'm going around the website, like get involved. Get involved is like post yourself in the pose. Well, I'm happy to do that. It just seems like what else could we possibly do? You can print out cards to take a picture of yourself with like selfie cards. And there's some speaking and discussion guides, but it all feels like you said, very symbolic. 

Beth [00:20:18] Well, I found that blog post about celebrating International Women's Day in Ukraine because I was specifically looking for what would it mean for International Women's Day to grapple with the reality of what's happening in Ukraine right now, especially given the origins of this holiday? And I didn't find anything that was sort of the the kind of call to action that you heard. I mean, if you think about these women gathering to the point of arrest around World War One saying, we don't want this, we are the people who bear the brunt of the world's suffering. We don't want any more of this. I would just love to see this year's outcry be centered on peace.  And and be centered on autonomy and the right of a people to govern themselves. That's what this has always been about, right? The right of people to govern themselves, to participate through voting, to have a real seat with employers in negotiations. And just if the best we can do is like a hashtag, I don't feel great about that. 

Sarah [00:21:23] And a pose. Don't forget the pose. 

Beth [00:21:25] And a pose. 

Sarah [00:21:25] I just think it started originally and they called it International Women's Day. And it's weird to me because when they called it that, it was really about finding women's collective power together. . And then I think that's probably why it shifted to International Women's Day. But what we've done to it is individualize it again. How do you, as an individual, participate? Well, that's not the point. 

Beth [00:21:48] Or what individual woman inspires you. 

Sarah [00:21:50] Right. The point is that women have a massive amount of political and economic power when they come together and say, we are protesting this as women because this is how it affects half the population and we don't want this. Now, that's hard. Women are not a monolith, right? And that's why I think it was more powerful at a time where not that all women supported suffrage, but there were big issues that were obvious, I think, to a lot of women like we want to participate, we don't want to be silenced. 

[00:22:20] Again, was it universal there are women opposed to women's suffrage, just like they were women about opposed to the ERA to this day. And so I think that the idea of shifting this from this sort of individual celebration to a call to collective action, which we're seeing the power of right now. Like, look,  this is a workers moment right now and the United States and around the world where workers are taking back their power. And there are strikes and there are collective actions. And so I think those two things are so true, the collective power of women inside a moment of war and the collective power of women inside a moment of collective action. 

Beth [00:22:55] I think it's also important to just spend a second reflecting on the criticism of feminism by the founders here as being bourgeois in a country where we've turned that into boogie as like a positive instead of meaning like detached from the real suffering of lots of people in the world. And just remembering like the symbolic can always only help the the bourgeois. Like the symbolic can only help when you've reached a level of power and privilege and comfort. 

Sarah [00:23:28] Yeah. Or it's just about appearances. 

Beth [00:23:30] It's just about appearances. And as I think about, you know, women in Poland rolling their strollers to a train station for Ukrainian families as they flee their country while it's being bombed without any justification whatsoever, I just don't really want to hashtag break the bias as much as I want to understand what a groundswell of collective power from women saying we want a peaceful world immediately would look like. 

Sarah [00:24:13] You know, as a feminist, as a woman, as a women studies minor is just at what point do women in America, but in other places of the world, reach enough political equity where there is not a unifying call to action for us as a gender. You know what I mean, like where does we get to the point where -- so the triangle factory fire, it's not a loss of the right to vote. It's not a sacrificing of your -- I don't want to say like, we fixed it. I'm a feminist because I don't think women are treated equally around the world. But I do wonder if there's a threshold where there is enough equality that makes collective action as women as opposed to smaller groups. You know what I'm saying, like as opposed to women with young children or black women or Latino women or indigenous women, not that we don't have common cause. And that's probably true at the time. That's always been true to certain extent, right? Certain women had enough power. They didn't have to make common cause or they felt like they did. That they didn't need the right to vote because they were rich and white and powerful and successful. So I don't want to be another like white lady saying, is it good enough? But I do wonder if that's what happens. Is like the stakes aren't high enough to make common cause with every woman. 

Beth [00:25:34] Well, and to me, the places where we are still most failing are not unique to women. I mean, I think these are the contributions of non-binary leaders that are so powerful. When you hear people saying, listen, we still live in a world even in one of the richest countries on Earth, where far too many people are not physically safe in their own homes. That is not just about the Violence Against Women Act, right? That's an, that is one tool and it's important, but that is not just a women's cause. That is a broad cause. And that cause specifically affects people who don't conform to traditional gendered expectations. And so thinking about just fundamental human rights, in some ways, that common cause drills down to smaller groups. 

[00:26:29] But in the most impactful ways, it rolls up to be much more expansive and to include men. And I think that a lot of what I have learned from listening to nonbinary people is that the standards and expectations and oppression that have led to the need for things like International Women's Day, as it was originally conceived, exist because of a binary that is harmful to all of us. And that if we were able to just accept people on their own terms and not just about gender, right, but just accept people on their own terms in a in a broad variety of ways, we could live much more peacefully and safely with each other. We could get faster to that bread and roses state where  you know that your fundamental needs are being met and you also have access to the beautiful parts of living a good life. 

Sarah [00:27:21] Well, and I think that what we see from this history is this is not a new debate. That was the debate. That's what Clara was pushing for. Is this idea of no, we are not all just united as workers. Women have a very specific need which is the right to suffrage and the right to political participation that has to take priority. And there's not going to be one answer to that. It's not going to be like somebody is going to make a case and we're all going to go, yep. There's always going to be parts of the population that are opposed. There's always going to be parts of the population that don't feel called to action. And, you know, I'm not opposed to International Women's Day. Obviously,  I think that any moment of awareness is important. 

[00:27:59] I don't think that women have reached equity and political participation or economic participation are damn near anything, but I think the history is more complicated, which makes the holiday more complicated or reveals the way that the holiday was always more complicated than we wanted it to be. Well, thank you for joining us here today at Pantsuit Politics, as we worked our way through the very complicated International Women's Day history and celebration and how we feel about it. As always, we will be back in your ears on Friday. Please click through to the show notes and check out our live event in Waco in April. We are so excited. And until Friday, keep it nuanced ya'll. 

Beth [00:28:50] Pantsuit Politics is produced by Studio D Podcast Production. Alise Napp is our managing director. 

Sarah [00:28:56] Maggie Penton is our community engagement manager. Dante Lima is the composer and performer of our theme music. 

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