Why is International Women's Day on March 8?

In the modern age, women around the world continue to struggle for equality and equity in their daily lives. This is what makes International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, so important. It exists as a reminder to honor women’s achievements, both past and present. In 1909 the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Women’s Day on February 28. At the same time, other feminist leaders overseas discussed when their own countries would recognize and celebrate women. In 1910 German activist Clara Zetkin convinced the International Socialist Congress to create an international version of the American holiday. On March 19, 1911, the first International Women’s Day was held in four European countries. However, March 19 didn’t stick. In 1917 the world witnessed an event on the day that would later serve as the official date of the international holiday. On March 8, 1917—or February 23, 1917, if you’re using the Julian calendar as Russians did at the time—women in Petrograd, Russia, took to the streets to protest food shortages, poor living conditions, and the millions of deaths that occurred as a result of World War I. The date of this historic strike, which helped give rise to the Russian Revolution, became the official date for International Women’s Day in 1921. In the following decades, the success of the suffrage movement contributed to a decline in the popularity of the holiday, but it began a revival when the United Nations sponsored International Women’s Day for the first time in 1975. Today, the holiday is recognized in dozens of countries as a means to acknowledge the tireless efforts made in furthering women’s rights, but it also serves as a reminder of the work still left to do before genuine equality can be fully achieved for all women across the world.