On this day in 1857, garment workers in New York City protested against inhumane working conditions, low wages, and for equal rights for women, an event that is commemorated annually as International Women's Day. Their protest was attacked and broken up by police, but the labor action led to the creation of the first women's labor union.
On the same day in 1908, 15,000 women marched in NYC for shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights, and an end to child labor. The slogan "Bread and Roses" emerged from the protest, with bread symbolizing economic security and roses for better living standards.
International Women's Day in 1917 was also the date of the Russian February Revolution, in which workers celebrating International Women's Day joined protests and riots against food rationing, with more than 50,000 people in the streets. The protests grew quickly and developed revolutionary fervor, eventually overthrowing the monarchy.
International Women's Day (then International Working Women's Day) was introduced during the 1910 International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, Denmark. Clara Zetkin, a German socialist, suggested a holiday honoring the strike of garment workers in the U.S. The proposal received unanimous approval from the 100 women from 17 countries.
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In honor of women's day, I'm curious to read up on how women were treated in the USSR and the Eastern Bloc, if anyone can recommend some good resources. I remember last year, I mentioned some facts about this to friends and they just straight up didn't believe me.
I read Rowbotham's Resistance, Women, and Revolution a few years ago and can't vouch for it completely, but her chapter on women pre and post Russian revolution rang very true to me when I look at my female relatives and gender norms in our family (we're all Soviet/post-Soviet). This chapter is available online here, though I don't remember if it's in any way abridged.
I assume Kristin Ghodsee's Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism goes into it at least a bit too, as she's a professor of Russian and Eastern European studies, but I haven't read it yet, so can't promise anything.
While it's highly specific, I would recommend checking out Svetlana Alexievich's The Unwomanly Face of War, which is an oral history of Soviet women fighting on the Eastern Front. It implicitly shows the mentality of Soviet women, as well as how they were treated by their comrades, the higher-ups, and the population when they returned during peace.
My own very brief observations: no housewives here, most women worked full-time. It's just that then they went home to a "second shift" - to cook and clean and take care of the children.
What did your friends not believe?
Very cool, thank you!
I know mentioned how they focused on getting more women into science and stuff like that. I discussed just the general push for equality and the underlying beliefs in gender equality under communism. But these friends will literally dismiss anything that shows communism in a positive light. For example, the other day I said the Cuban constitution is good and they got like 90+% of the people to vote for it because they tried to build a document that everyone would buy into. They just went into a "oh no they must've voted for it because they're afraid they'll be shot if they don't" response. Didn't matter the evidence I had and the lack of any that they had, they just believe anything pro-communism is a lie.
Oh hm, well even the Smithsonian and QZ agree, maybe they'll believe it from there. Or try giving them Ghodsee's op-ed from the NYT. But tbh if they're really into feminism, I'd start them with the Feminism for the 99% manifesto, which pushes anti-capitalist feminism without being all scary and "super Marxist".
Oh these guys don't give a shit about feminism. One said he could never vote for a woman. The logical question to ask is why I'm still friends with these chuds and tbh that is a great question I've been struggling with a lot recently.
Maybe you're better off telling them that women still had to do most of the cooking and cleaning in the USSR, let's return the womenz to the kitchen, go communism, amirite fellas 😂