Re: Women's international day

Eugene Matusov (ematusov who-is-at UDel.Edu)
Tue, 9 Mar 1999 14:51:46 -0500

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Dear Katherine--

Thanks a lot for such detailed history. I really appreciate your help.

Eugene
-----Original Message-----
From: Katherine Brown <kbrown who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
To: ematusov who-is-at UDel.Edu <ematusov@UDel.Edu>
Date: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: Women's international day

>Origins
>
>Born at a time of great social turbulence and crisis, IWD inherited a
tradition of protest and political
>activism. In the years before 1910, from the turn of the 20th century,
women in industrially
>developing countries were entering paid work in some numbers. Their jobs
were sex segregated,
>mainly in textiles, manufacturing and domestic services where conditions
were wretched and wages
>worse than depressed. Trade unions were developing and industrial disputes
broke out, including
>among sections of non-unionised women workers. In Europe, the flames of
revolution were being
>kindled.
>
>Many of the changes taking place in women's lives pushed against the
political restrictions surrounding
>them. Throughout Europe, Britain, America and, to a lesser extent,
Australia, women from all social
>strata began to campaign for the right to vote. There were many different
perspective's on why this
>issue was important and how to achieve it. I mention here only a few of
these differences.
>
>Some socialists saw the demand for the women's vote as being unnecessarily
divisive in the working
>class movement, while others such as German Clara Zetkin and Russian
Alexandra Kollontai
>successfully fought for it to be accepted as a necessary part of a
socialist program. Other socialists
>argued that it was more important to do away with property rights in
respect to the vote than it was to
>campaign for the women's vote which, if successful in England, would by
implication mean votes for
>women of property.
>
>There were other divisions within the English suffragette movement about
the way the movement was
>autocratically run from the top and about the sort of radical tactics
adopted. Sylvia Pankhurst split with
>her more famous mother and sister over such issues, arguing that the main
emphasis should be on
>connecting with and involving the mass of women, which meant also taking up
the concerns of the
>sorely exploited working class women. She also argued that the suffragette
movement should link itself
>with all other oppressed groups.
>
>In the United States in 1903, women trade unionists and liberal
professional women who were also
>campaigning for women's voting rights set up the Women's Trade Union League
to help organise
>women in paid work around their political and economic welfare. These were
dismal and bitter years
>for many women with terrible working conditions and home lives riven by
poverty and often violence.
>
>In 1908, on the last Sunday in February, socialist women in the United
States initiated the first
>Women's Day when large demonstrations took place calling for the vote and
the political and economic
>rights of women. The following year, 2,000 people attended a Women's Day
rally in Manhattan.
>
>In that year, 1909, women garment workers staged a general strike.
20-30,000 shirtwaist makers
>struck for 13 cold, winter weeks for better pay and working conditions. The
Women's Trade Union
>League provided bail money for arrested strikers and large sums for strike
funds.
>
>In 1910 Women's Day was taken up by socialists and feminists throughout the
country. Later that year
>delegates went to the second International Conference of Socialist Women in
Copenhagen with the
>intention of proposing that Women's Day become an international event. The
notion of international
>solidarity between the exploited workers of the world had long been
established as a socialist principle,
>though largely an unrealised one. The idea of women organising politically
as women was much more
>controversial within the socialist movement. At that time, however, the
German Socialist Party had a
>strong influence on the international socialist movement and that party had
many advocates for the
>rights of women, including leaders such as Clara Zetkin
>
>Inspired by the actions of US women workers and their socialist sisters,
Clara Zetkin ;had already
>framed a proposal to put to the conference of socialist women that women
throughout the world should
>focus on a particular day each year to press for their demands. The
conference of over 100 women
>from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's
clubs, and including the
>first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's
suggestion with unanimous
>approval and International Women's Day was the result.
>
>That conference also reasserted the importance of women's right to vote,
dissociated itself from voting
>systems based on property rights and called for universal suffrage - the
right to vote for all adult
>women and men The voice of dissent on this decision came from the English
group led by Mrs.
>Despard of the Women's Freedom League, a group actively engaged in the
suffragette movement.
>
>Conference also called for maternity benefits which, despite an
intervention by Alexandra Kollontai on
>behalf of unmarried mothers, were to be for married women only. It also
decided to oppose night
>work as being detrimental to the health of most working women, though
Swedish and Danish working
>women who were present asserted that night work was essential to their
livelihood.
>>From http://www.isis.aust.com/iwd/stevens/origins.htm
>Katherine Brown

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