“International Women’s Day (commonly defined, albeit improperly, Women’s Day) occurs on March 8 every year to commemorate both the social, political and economic achievements of women, and the discrimination and violence to which they are still made object in many parts of the world. This celebration was held for the first time in the United States in 1909, in some European countries in 1911 and in Italy in 1922. “
Best wishes to all women!
A day in which to remember the social and political achievements of women, an opportunity to strengthen the fight against discrimination and violence, a time to reflect on the steps still to be taken. There International Women’s Day , which falls on March 8 every year, is all this and more. It is a way of remembering where we women come from and where we are going.
But where does this anniversary come from? A very famous legend tells that Women’s Day was established in 1908 in memory of the workers who died in the stake of a New York factory, the Cotton. In reality, in fact, it is just a legend born in the years following the Second World War.
In fact, International Women’s Day was officially born in the United States on February 28, 1909 . It was established by the American Socialist Party , which on that date organized a large demonstration in favor of women’s right to vote. The topic had already been discussed at length in previous years both in the USA (the articles of the socialist Corinne Brown are famous) and by the delegates of the VII Congress of the Socialist International (held in Stuttgart in 1907).
The demonstrations for universal suffrage they soon joined other demands for women’s rights. Between November 1908 and February 1909, thousands of New York workers went on strike for days and days to ask an increase in wages and an improvement in working conditions . In 1910 the VIII Congress of the Socialist International proposed for the first time to institute a day dedicated to women.
On March 25, 1911, the drop fell that broke the camel’s back: a fire broke out in the Triangle factory in New York and 146 workers (mostly immigrant women) lost their lives. This is probably the episode from which the legend of the Cotton factory was born. From that moment on, the manifestations of women multiplied. In many European countries, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland, days dedicated to women were born.
The date of 8 March entered the history of Women’s Day for the first time in 1917, when on that day the St. Petersburg women took to the streets to demand an end to the war, thus giving rise to the “Russian February Revolution”. It was this event that inspired the delegates of the Second International Conference of Communist Women in Moscow when they chose 8 March as the date on which to establish the International Opera Day .
In Italy Women’s Day began to be celebrated in 1922 with the same political connotation and social claim. The initiative took strength in 1945, when the ‘ Union of Women in Italy (made up of women from the Communist Party, Psi, Action Party, Christian Left and Labor Democracy) celebrated Women’s Day in the areas of Italy already liberated from fascism.
On March 8, 1946, for the first time, all of Italy remembered the Women’s Day and it was mimosa was chosen , which blooms in the first days of March, as a symbol of the anniversary. In the following years, the Day became an occasion and a symbolic moment for the vindication of women’s rights (from divorce to contraception to the legalization of abortion) and for the defense of women’s achievements.
Source: Wikipedia
