International Women’s Day: History of IWD + Women Who Have Paved the Way to Equality (#108)

International Women’s Day, held on March 8th each year, celebrates the social, economic, and political achievements of women around the world. According to the World Economic Forum, global gender equality is estimated to be achieved by 2133. That means that if things continue as they are right now, we won’t see true gender equality for at least a century.

Gender equality is the equal access to the same rights and opportunities regardless of gender. These rights and opportunities include healthcare, education, employment / economic gain, pay, protection under the law, right to vote, and being free from violence.

As the official website states, International Women's Day is powered by the collective efforts of all. Collective action and shared ownership for driving gender parity is what makes International Women's Day impactful.

Gloria Steinem, world-renowned feminist, journalist and activist once explained, “the story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."

Here are some of the major areas in which gender equality is still being achieved.

Holding Political Office

Just over 100 years ago, only 0.2% of the United States Congress consisted of women. The 65th Congress (between 1917-1919) included one woman. In 1916, Montana elected Republican Jeannette Rankin as the first Congresswoman to hold a federal office. In 2020, women held 23.7% of the U.S. From 0.2% to 23.7% might sound like progress, but really, it’s less than a quarter — and also means in the last 100 years, there’s been a less than 0.3% increase each year.

Education

In many parts of the world, women are still less likely to own land, a business, or attend school. According to Unicef, investing in girls’ education transforms communities, countries and the entire world. Girls’ education strengthens economies and reduces inequality. It contributes to more stable, resilient societies that give all individuals – including boys and men – the opportunity to fulfil their potential. But education for girls is about more than access to school. It’s also about girls feeling safe in classrooms and supported in the subjects and careers they choose to pursue – including those in which they are often under-represented.

Only 49% of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. At the secondary level, the gap widens: 42% of countries have achieved gender parity in lower secondary education, and 24% in upper secondary education. Barriers to girls’ education – like poverty, child marriage and gender-based violence – vary among countries and communities. Poor families often favour boys when investing in education. In some places, schools do not meet the safety, hygiene or sanitation needs of girls. In others, teaching practises are not gender-responsive and result in gender gaps in learning and skills development.

Gender equality in education doesn’t just positively affect girls, though — an education free of negative gender norms has direct benefits for boys, too. In many countries, norms around masculinity can fuel disengagement from school, child labour, gang violence and recruitment into armed groups. The need or desire to earn an income also causes boys to drop out of school, as many of them believe the curriculum is not relevant to work opportunities.

I’ll put some links in the notes about the things organisations like Unicef are doing to fight for gender equality in education.

Equal Pay

Across the globe, women on average earn substantially less than men. In the US, the gender wage gap stands on average at 23%, with women earning 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. In some countries, the wage gap is substantially higher. For instance, in Japan and South Korea, women earn on average more than 30% less than men for the same amount of time worked, and in Azerbaijan and Benin, the gender wage gap is greater than 40%. For women of colour, disabled women, indigenous women and migrant women the pay gaps are even higher.

Women’s lower pay – combined with their greater concentration in part-time, informal and unstable work as well as career breaks or job loss due to their disproportionate share in taking up unpaid care work – leads to women’s higher risk of poverty. Particularly in the US, it contributes to women’s lower social security contributions, and in turn inadequate or even non-existent social security entitlements, leaving them especially vulnerable in old age. In the EU alone, women’s pensions tend to be 37 per cent less than men’s.

History of International Women’s Day

International Women's Day has been observed since the early 1900s, so here’s a quick timeline of events since then, starting in 1908.

At this time, great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring them to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the US on 28th February 1909.

In 1910, a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country, there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - 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 born.

Following this decision, International Women's Day was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19th March 1911. More than one million women and men attended International Women’s Day rallies, campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office, and end discrimination.

However, less than a week later on 25th March, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. It was basically a sweatshop, employing young immigrant women and teenage girls who worked 12 hours a day, every day.

The event is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable — most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. Only 1 out of 4 elevators was fully operational and workers had to file down a long, narrow corridor to reach it. The fire escape was so narrow that it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it, even in the best of circumstances. This event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the US, and it became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events.

1911 also saw the Bread and Roses campaign, which is the name given to a textile workers strike that happened in Lawrence, Massachusetts. After 2 cold, hungry months of striking, the workers won, causing a ripple effect through the textile industry as mill owners all over the country improved working conditions to avoid another strike like this one. The term ‘Bread & Roses’ was coined in 1912 by labour union leader Rose Schneiderman, in a speech she gave to the strikers:

"What the woman who labours wants is the right to live, not simply exist — the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with."

Now we come to 1913-14, and the eve of World War I. Campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on 23rd February, the last Sunday in February. It was around this time that International Women's Day was agreed to be marked annually on 8th March, which was the date that 23rd February translated to in the widely adopted Gregorian calendar — and this day has remained the global date for International Women's Day ever since.

In 1914, women across Europe held rallies to campaign against the war and to express women's solidarity. For example, in London there was a march to Trafalgar Square in support of women's suffrage on 8th March, where Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.

On the last Sunday of February in 1917, Russian women began a strike for "bread and peace" in response to the death of over 2 million Russian soldiers in World War 1. Opposed by political leaders, the women continued to strike until four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

Next, I come to a UK strike that I just had to mention. In 1929, Ford opened a huge factory in Dagenham and offered well-paid jobs to 30,000 workers. Taking two years to build, the Dagenham factory was the biggest in Europe. Although there had been industrial action at Dagenham in the past, only men had ever been on strike. But in 1968, that changed. After a pay regrade that saw sewing machinists classed as “unskilled labour”, 187 of those machinists – all women – decided to walk out on the claim that they’d been unfairly graded compared to the men.

(The reason I had to mention this is because I was in my local theatre group’s production of the musical Made in Dagenham which is all about this strike, so it has a special place in my heart. But it was also a very important time for equal pay in the UK.)

The strike brought the factory to its knees. Barbara Castle, the country’s employment minister at the time, was brought in to help negotiate a settlement. After 4 weeks on strike, the machinists voted to return to work following an offer of 92% of the male rate. They were only regraded into the same pay grade as the men following a further 6-week strike in 1984.

Inspired by the Ford machinists, women trade unionists founded the National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Women’s Equal Rights. In May 1969, this group organised an Equal Pay demonstration in Trafalgar Square, attended by 1,000 protestors. This – together with the outcome of the sewing machinists’ strike – led directly to the Equal Pay Act of 1970. For the first time, employers had to treat men and women who were doing the same job equally in their pay and conditions.

Moving on to 1975, when International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time by the United Nations. Then in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

In 1996, the UN announced their first annual theme: "Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future", which was followed in 1997 with "Women at the Peace table", in 1998 with "Women and Human Rights", in 1999 with "World Free of Violence Against Women". There has since been a theme for IWD every year — this year’s being ‘Break the Bias’.

By the new millennium, there wasn’t a huge amount of activity occurring for International Women's Day in most countries. The world had moved on and, in many spheres, feminism wasn't a popular topic. Something was needed to reignite International Women's Day, giving it the respect it deserves and to raise awareness amongst the masses. There was urgent work to do - battles had not been won and gender parity still had not been achieved.

In 2001, the IWD website was launched with the specific purpose of re-energising the day - a focus which continues to this day - celebrating and making visible the achievements of women while continuing the call for accelerating gender parity. Today, the IWD website serves as a significant vehicle for charities, and in 2020 a hefty six figure sum was fundraised with 100% of donations going to charity. The IWD website's Charities of Choice are the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts since 2007, and Catalyst Inc., the global working women's organisation, since 2017.

2011 saw the 100-year centenary of International Women's Day - with the first IWD event held exactly 100 years before in 1911. In the US, Barack Obama proclaimed March 2011 to be "Women's History Month", calling Americans to mark IWD by reflecting on "the extraordinary accomplishments of women" in shaping the country's history. The Secretary of State at the time, Hillary Clinton, launched the "100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges". In the UK, celebrity activist Annie Lennox led a march across Tower Bridge, raising awareness and support for the global charity Women for Women International.

Over the last century, the world has witnessed a significant change and attitude shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and more, some might think that women have gained true equality. But unfortunately, women are still not paid the same as men, even in the same jobs, and women are still not present in equal numbers in business or politics. Globally, women's education, health, and the violence against them is worse than that of men. But real progress is still being made.

Women Who Have Paved the Way to Equality

While International Women’s Day is about bringing these issues to light, it’s also about celebrating women and the progress we’ve made in paving the way to gender equality. So in true Let’s Learn About fashion, I thought I’d shine the spotlight on some awesome women of history, and some of the things they’ve done to make the gender gap smaller.

There are of course SO many I could mention, but I had to pick just a few. I will put some links in the notes though where you can find lots more.

Susan B. Anthony (born 1820)

Susan B. Anthony was born in February 1820 in Massachusetts. Before she joined the campaign for woman suffrage, Anthony was a temperance activist in Rochester, New York, where she was a teacher at a girls’ school. As a Quaker, she believed that drinking alcohol was a sin; and that (particularly male) drunkenness was harmful to the innocent women and children who suffered from the poverty and violence it caused. However, Anthony found that very few politicians took her anti-liquor crusade seriously, both because she was a woman and because she was advocating on behalf of a “women’s issue.” She concluded that women needed the right to vote so that the government would have to keep women’s interests in mind.

In 1853, she began to campaign for the expansion of married women’s property rights, and in 1856, she joined the American Anti-Slavery Society, delivering abolitionist lectures across New York State. Though she was dedicated to the abolitionist cause and genuinely believed that African American men and women deserved the right to vote, after the Civil War ended she refused to support any suffrage amendments to the Constitution unless they were granted to women as well as men.

This led to a dramatic divide in the women’s rights movement between activists like Anthony, who believed that no amendment granting the vote to African Americans should be ratified unless it also granted the vote to women, and those who were willing to support an immediate expansion of the citizenship rights of former slaves, even if it meant they had to keep fighting for universal suffrage.

This animosity eventually faded, and in 1890 the two groups joined to form a new women’s suffrage organisation, the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony continued to fight for the vote until she died on March 13, 1906.

Kind of related to this actually, it sparked a new episode idea - I was going to talk about it here but it easily can be (and should be) its own full episode - all about the intersectionality of racial and gender equality. There are so many Black women who fought for both at the same time, and I’d love to talk about this in its own episode.

Alice Paul (born 1885)

Anyway, moving on! Inspired by the work of Susan B. Anthony was Alice Paul, the leader of the most militant wing of the women's suffrage movement. Born in 1885 in New Jersey, Paul was well-educated, earning a degree in biology and a PhD in sociology, and she was determined to win the vote by any means necessary.

While she was in graduate school, Paul spent time in London, where she joined Emmeline Pankhurst’s radical, confrontational Women’s Social and Political Union and learned how to use civil disobedience and other “unladylike” tactics to draw attention to her cause. When she returned to the US in 1910, she brought those militant tactics to the well-established National American Woman Suffrage Association. There, as the chair of the Congressional Committee, she began to fight for an amendment to the Constitution, just like the one her hero Susan B. Anthony had wanted so badly to see.

In 1913, Paul and her colleagues coordinated an enormous suffrage parade to coincide with – and distract from – President Wilson’s inauguration. More marches and protests followed. The more conservative women at National American Woman Suffrage Association became frustrated with publicity stunts like these, and in 1914, Alice Paul left the organisation and started her own called the Congressional Union (which soon became the National Woman’s Party). Even after the US entered World War I, she kept up the flamboyant protests, even staging a seven-month picket of the White House.

For this “unpatriotic” act, Paul and the rest of the National Woman’s Party suffragists were arrested and imprisoned. Along with some of the other activists, Paul was placed in solitary confinement. When they went on a hunger strike to protest this unfair treatment, the women were force-fed for as long as three weeks. However, this abuse didn’t have its intended effect: once news of the mistreatment got out, public sympathy swung to the side of the imprisoned activists and they were soon released.

In January 1918, President Wilson announced his support for a constitutional amendment that would give all female citizens the right to vote. Ratification of this amendment came down to a vote in Tennessee. The battle over ratification was known as the “War of the Roses” (not to be confused with the series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the fifteenth century) because suffragists and their supporters wore yellow roses while the people against them wore red. While the resolution passed easily in the Tennessee Senate, the House was bitterly divided, but by August 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, making it law.

Rose Schneiderman (born 1882)

This is someone I’ve already mentioned: Rose Schneiderman. A Polish Jewish immigrant born in 1882, she was the first woman elected to national office in a labour union, and she transformed the lives of American workers. She went to work at 13 and began organising for unions at 21. By 1906, she was vice president of the New York Women’s Trade Union League and she helped organise the Uprising of the 20,000 for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1909. Her friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt and their conversations on labour issues led to Franklin D Roosevelt appointing Schneiderman to the National Labor Advisory Board in 1933, where she fought to include domestic workers in social security and argued for wage parity for women workers.

In 1911 during the Bread & Roses campaign, Schneiderman said her famous line, “The woman worker needs bread, but she needs roses too.” For nearly half a century, she worked tirelessly to improve wages, hours, and safety standards for American working women. She saw those things as “bread,” the very basic human rights to which working women were entitled. But she also worked for the “roses” such as schools, recreational facilities, and professional networks for trade union women.

Only 4’9” and with flaming red hair, Schneiderman possessed legendary power as a public speaker. From 1904 to the 1950s, she spoke on street corners, soapboxes, lecture platforms, and on the radio, impressing even those who didn’t share her political views. Many people described her as the most moving speaker they had ever heard, and even her enemies evoked a sense of her emotional punch, dubbing her “the Red Rose of Anarchy.”

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Schneiderman also became deeply involved in efforts to rescue European Jews and to resettle them in the US and Palestine. Her work won her the praise of Albert Einstein, who wrote: “It must be a source of deep gratification to you to be making such an important contribution to rescuing our persecuted fellow Jews from their calamitous peril and leading them toward a better future.”

In 1949, she retired from public life, devoting her time to writing her memoirs and making radio speeches and occasional appearances for various labour unions. She never married, but she had a long-term relationship with labour movement colleague Maud Swartz (so she was also LGBTQ, although some sources state that they were “very close friends”, as is usually the case). She died in New York City on 11th August 1972, at age 90.

Emmeline Pankhurst (born 1858)

Emmeline Pankhurst, born in 1858 in Manchester, was a militant champion of women’s suffrage whose 40-year campaign achieved complete success in the year of her death, when British women obtained the right to vote.

In 1879, she married Richard Marsden Pankhurst, a lawyer and author of the first woman suffrage bill in Great Britain, and the Married Women’s Property acts. Ten years later, Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Franchise League, which secured married women the right to vote in elections to local offices (not to the House of Commons).

From 1895 she held a succession of municipal jobs in Manchester, but she was increasingly in demand by the Women’s Social and Political Union, which she founded in 1903. The union first attracted wide attention in October 1905, when two of its members, Christabel Pankhurst (Emmeline’s daughter) and Annie Kenney, were thrown out of a Liberal Party meeting for demanding a statement about votes for women, were arrested in the street for a technical assault on the police and, after refusing to pay fines, were sent to prison.

From 1906, Emmeline Pankhurst directed Women’s Social and Political Union activities in London. Regarding the Liberal government as the main obstacle to woman suffrage, she campaigned against the party’s candidates at elections, and her followers interrupted meetings of cabinet ministers. In 1908–09 Pankhurst was jailed three times, once for issuing a leaflet calling on the people to “rush the House of Commons.”

From July 1912 the Women’s Social and Political Union turned to extreme militancy, mainly in the form of arson directed by Christabel in Paris, where she had gone to avoid arrest for conspiracy. Pankhurst herself was imprisoned, and, under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act of 1913, by which hunger-striking prisoners could be freed for a time and then reincarcerated upon regaining their health to some extent, she was released and rearrested 12 times within a year, serving a total of about 30 days. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she and Christabel called off the suffrage campaign, and the government released all suffragist prisoners.

During the war, Pankhurst visited the US, Canada, and Russia to encourage the industrial mobilisation of women. She lived in the US, Canada, and Bermuda for several years after the war. In 1926, upon returning to England, she was the chosen political candidate for an east London constituency, but her health failed before she could be elected. She passed away in June 1928. The Representation of the People Act of 1928, establishing voting equality for men and women, was passed a few weeks after her death.

There have been so many incredible women since, many of which we’ve already talked about before on the podcast: people like Audre Lorde, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Sally Ride, Malala — and there are so many more. I just wanted to highlight some of the women who were vital in the early days of the women’s suffrage movement, and paved the way for future women to carry on their battles. As I said, have a look at the notes for this episode where I’ve included a few extra links to articles that cover a lot more amazing women!

Another reminder that if you’re listening to this on the day it comes out (7th March), tomorrow is International Women’s Day. Take a moment to think about all the amazing women you know, but also consider what you might be able to do to help make global equality happen much faster than in a century’s time. Everyone can play a very small part in making change, even if that just means talking about it.