Like every March 8, the entire world commemorates International Women’s Day, a date designed to make visible the fight for women’s rights around the world, and while many simply limit themselves to congratulating all the women who cross paths its path, very few know the origin of this date.
What are the origins of 8M?
Although the fight for women’s rights has been going on for more than 100 years and began to gain strength at the same time in various parts of the world, there is a specific reason why this day became a symbol of said fight.
This is due to the historic strike of textile workers, which took place in 1908, and the terrible consequences it had for dozens of them, whose sole objective was to obtain better working conditions.
That year, more than 40,000 seamstresses in the United States decided to go on strike to complain about the terrible working conditions they faced at the time. They spent months demanding changes such as shorter work hours and the opportunity to have time during their shift to breastfeed their babies.
In addition to asking for a day of “only 10 hours” and the opportunity to feed their children, the women also asked for a fair and equitable salary, something that had not been seen in those years.
However, although these requests were reasonable, no one listened to them, so 140 of these workers decided to barricade themselves in the Triangle Shirtwaist textile factory, located in New York, to make themselves heard.
Unfortunately, a fire killed the more than 100 women who were there on the night of March 8, 1908. This was not an accident, but an attempt to silence them.
The group in charge of committing this atrocious act planned everything, going so far as to block all exits from the factory to prevent the women from being able to save themselves.
The incident caused outrage among citizens, and after years of struggle, in 1910, this date was proposed to commemorate the fight for women’s rights. A year later, the date was commemorated for the first time, but it was not until 1977 that the United Nations (UN) established that day officially at the international level.
1908, where 146 women workers at the Cotton textile factory were burned to death in a fire caused by fire bombs thrown at them due to their refusal to abandon the confinement in which they were protesting against low wages and poor working conditions.
— P.A.R. (@PARTDFOficial) March 8, 2021
Since then, the date, far from simply “celebrating women for existing,” serves to commemorate a struggle that continues to this day, as well as to reflect on the problem and think of better ways to support this effort.
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