March 8, International Women’s day: history, origins and why it is celebrated

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Over time, the awareness of the importance of March 8 as International Women’s day has been increasing and what we celebrate on this date is now more and more known: March 8 is the day in which the world remembers the social achievements that have been necessary over the years for women’s rights in the world. What really happened on March 8 and how this date was consolidated in history is a curiosity that we have every year, also because it includes some incorrect information that has spread over time. Let’s see it together.

What really happened on March 8?

In reality, March 8 was a conventional date that was chosen to celebrate and remember the battles for women’s rights already in the early 1900s, at an international level. There is no real symbolic event linked to women’s on this date. In the past there has been a lot of talk about a fire in the Cotton textile factory in 1908 in New York, but the truth is that that fire didn’t really happen. There was another serious fire, however, which occurred on March 25, 1911, and concerns the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory: that was the most serious industrial accident in the history of New York and 125 women died there, forced into the burning building and lead to throwing themselves into the void to escape the fire. It was a tragedy and it is not excluded that it inspired the celebration of women’s rights. But it happened on a different date.

The definition of 8 March to celebrate women’s rights actually dates back to 1922 and was declared internationally. It was decided precisely for that date, recalling a great demonstration carried out by women in St. Petersburg in 1917, asking for the end to the World War I. Before that year, many nations already celebrated the woman, but each one on different dates, while starting from 1922 the date was defined internationally.

Today, March 8 is still often experienced with the superficiality of a day in which the presence of women in society is celebrated. But there are many parts that underline the importance of remembering how we got there.