This Date in UCSF History: Celebrating Women's Day

Originally published in Synapse on March 6, 1975. The beginning of this century was marked by a period of massive organizing among women both in this country and in western Europe.

Thousands of American women were involved in campaigns for suffrage on both state and national levels.

Many others took part in the struggles to organize unions. Some of the most effective organizers were women — Mother Jones of the United Mine Workers, Elizabeth Curley Flynn of the International Workers of the World and Agnes Nestor, President of the International Glove Worker’s Union. Women strikers were considered among the most militant and courageous.

March 8 Tradition

On March 8, 1857, women garment and textile workers marched from a poor neighborhood in New York City to an affluent one nearby to protest their working conditions.

Fifty years later, on February 28. 1907, socialist women in this country organized the first “Women’s Day.” Huge demonstrations were held across the nation calling for political rights for working women.

The most important was suffrage, the right to vote.

The right to unionize was also a demand. In New York City, in March 1908. women held a demonstration demanding the right to vote and an end to sweatshop conditions and child labor.

In September 1909, workers from two garment factories went on strike because of intolerable working conditions. It is estimated that 30,000 unorganized workers, 75 per cent of them women, answered the strike call.

Women picketed day after day, undaunted by assaults from strike breakers, beatings by police, and the threat of arrest.

The strike spread from New York City to Philadelphia to Chicago and included 100,000 workers of more than nine nationalities.

After 13 weeks, 312 shops in New York won full union contracts.

Socialist Women

In 1910 the second International Conference of Socialist Working Women was held in Copenhagen.

Clara Zetkin, a German Socialist, proposed the establishment of International Working Women’s Day to be held yearly.

From 1911 to 1914, March 8 was celebrated in Europe and the U.S. Thousands of women participated until this event was overshadowed by World War I.

Then, in 1917, Russian women workers and wives of soldiers demonstrated in Petrograd for bread and for the return of their husbands from the trenches.

This event marked the beginning of the February Revolution against the Tsar.

March 8 was rediscovered in 1968 by women in Berkeley. Women have once again begun organizing and holding demonstrations on this day.

International Women’s Day is an important part of our history as women and workers. We can learn many valuable lessons from the fights that were waged.

It is a chance for us to share our common experiences as women.

Women who have jobs and those who work at home need to continue developing ways to fight for control of our lives.