Time to Revisit the Origins of International Women’s Day
On March 8, 1917, female textile workers in Russia led a strike demanding “Bread and Peace”. This movement marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution and led to the commemoration of this day worldwide as International Women’s Day. One hundred and five years later, it is now March 8 again, and Women’s Day has become yet another watered-down holiday, as made evident from social media feeds plastered with aesthetic pictures of t-shirts proclaiming feminist slogans. Comments under them, however, point out the irony of these items being made by female textile workers paid poor wages in exploitatory conditions. But are these black-and-white takes enough to paint an entire picture?