International Women's Day, I've grown to resent you
Sorry, but you've been co-opted
Founded in the fight for suffrage and fair working conditions, International Women's Day (IWD) had the potential to really mean something.
It was born from radical action, socialism and women protesting. The history is a little murky, and a lot of people disagree over when it officially started, but we do know that on March 8th, 1857, a spontaneous demonstration was staged by New York City women garment and textile workers. They were protesting low wages, the twelve-hour workday, and increasing workloads. It was broken up by the police, brutally.
Decades later, on 28 February 1909, the United Nations observed the first National Women's Day, followed by a declaration from the Socialist Party of America. This came after Clara Zetkin proposed establishing the annual ‘Women's Day’ in 1910 during the International Conference for Working Women in Copenhagen. This led to the first International Women's Day being celebrated in 1911 across Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
The Women’s Day resolution read:
In agreement with the class-conscious political and trade union organisations of the proletariat of their respective countries, socialist women of all nationalities have to organise a special Women’s Day (Frauentag), which must, above all, promote the propaganda of female suffrage. This demand must be discussed in connection with the whole woman’s question, according to the socialist conception.
However, since it has grown in popularity— with events spanning the entire month of March— Girl Boss feminists have rendered it almost meaningless. I’ve had *literally* over 600 emails this year with IWD or ‘International Women’s Day’ in the subject line. And 99% of them made me eye roll and swipe archive, almost immediately. From female-founded beauty lines that make their money by inventing new insecurities for women and use ingredients that actively harm the planet, to corporate companies asking me to host their panels (for free) on themes like ‘women at work’…it’s all become so shallow.
IWD has been co-opted by consumerism, now akin to days like Mother’s Day, it wants us to buy our ‘gal pals’ greetings cards and cookies. Capitalism has, sadly, got its grubby claws into a once-socialist day. Now, at most IWD events, you will see a sea of white, thin, able-bodied women who are celebrating each other — influencers who have been silent on genocide and flower arrangements instead of diverse communities and activism.
International Women’s Day has become another event that focuses on palatable women who fight for Forbes awards, not gender equality. It’s for the few, not the many.
I, for one, don’t want glossy marketing, interviews with billionaires and brunches by tech companies. I want real work. I want systemic misogyny and violence against women and girls addressed more radically and pointedly. I want events that talk about the real issues facing women — VAWAG, austerity, climate change, Palestine, systemic inequality — events hosted by diverse activists and experts who are paid for their time.