INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY SOCIALIST ORIGINS
Clara Zetkin, the birthmother of Women's Day, was an avid German communist who spent her entire life fighting for gender equality
From Putin’s televised speech, to giving women in Italy bright yellow mimosa flowers, to China’s half-day working hours for all females, International Women’s Day on 8 March is a global event. But where exactly did it come from?
In 1908 women marched through New York City demanding better pay, working conditions and the right to vote. The Socialist Party of America declared a ‘National Women’s Day’ a year later. It became an international event in 1911 following a suggestion from Clara Zetkin at a women’s conference in Copenhagen. The first countries to mark the day were Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany.
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CLARA
ZETKIN
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Advocate for gender equality, Marxist theorists and politician
She was a a representative of the German Communist Party (KPD) in the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic.
Zetkin, a German Marxist theorist and activist, was involved with the socialist movement in Germany since the 1870s. She was inspired by the equal rights opportunity within communism and became a vocal advocate for women’s politics, establishing the 1891 social-democratic women's movement in Germany and editing the SPD women's newspaper ‘Die Gleichheit’ (The Equality). In a 1992 Guardian profile, the Women’s Day pioneer was quoted saying that communism was the only movement that "could truly serve the needs of working-class women". Zetkin’s cause was driven by class ideas rather than gender policy, she was therefore dismissive of "bourgeois feminism".
Parallel to the developments in America and Western Europe, Tsarist Russia was also witnessing the birth of socialist ideas. Several strikes and marches were organised by the workers, which were the majority of Russian society, due to poor working conditions and the war. It was on March 8 of 1917 that women in Russia’s then capital, Petrograd, marched on the streets for "bread and peace". The Tsar’s Cossack army joined the protests and Russia’s monarch was removed, the new era of socialism was ushered in - thanks to women.
Knowing that the people who fought to establish International Women’s Day were of communist origins, it seems ironic that nowadays many corporations have capitalised on this event by pushing ads and promotions to increase their sales.
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Clara Zetkin became active in politics in 1878 when she joined the Socialist Worker's Party
Memorial bust of Clara Zetkin in Dresden (Photo by Daniel Weigelt)
