Depressed But Well Dressed

there's a common misconception that women's day originated in the US because of thw female textile workers in New York city on March 8th 1857, or a similar strike that happened in 1908. But historians found no evidence that the 1857 strike actually occurred on that date, but this story was popularized in the 1950s, during the height of the cold war. Western authorities changed its origins by creating a narrative that traced back to american labor struggles rather than the actual real Russian revolutionaries and in that way they made the holiday more palatable to a western audience. This way, they shifted the focus from a day of systemic revolt to a more generalized celebration of women's rights within an already existing western framework.

The real catalyst happened in 1917 Russia (which was Feb.23rd on the Russian Julien calendar) when, one morning, thousands of female textile workers and wives of soldiers from Petrograd, defied the warnings of male labor leaders who told them to just stay home. But they were driven by the agony left in the aftermath of world war I, specially mass starvation, where bread had become a luxury few could afford, so these women abandoned their jobs at the factories and marched through the streets demanding "Bread and Peace", and with their defiance, they started what later would be called the February Revolution. The movement was so powerful and grew to such extent, that it forced the abdication of Tsar Nicolas III, and with that the provisional goverment granted Russian women the right to vote, a victory achieved years before women from the US or UK gained similar rights.

This is why March 8th was solidified as a global day of struggle, marking a moment when working class women didnt ask for change to happen, they toppled an entire empire to demand it.

sources

maned wolf monday! legs be upon thee!

more legs be upon thee!

wrong! maned wolf of mockery!