Emerged this holiday as a day of struggle for women's rights. March 8, 1857 in New York gathered for a demonstration workers sewing and shoe factories. They demanded a 10-hour day, bright and dry working space, equal to men's wages. Worked at the time, women 16 hours a day, receiving a pittance for their labor. Men after strong performances achieved administering 10 hour day. Many companies in the U.S. have trade unions. And after 8 March 1857 formed another - the first of its members are women. On this day in many cities of New York, hundreds of women staged a demonstration, demanding the submission of the electoral law.
In 1910, at the International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin proposed the celebration of International Women's Day on March 8, which sounded like a call to all women of the world to join the struggle for equality. In response to this appeal, women in many countries in the struggle against poverty and for the right to work, to respect for their dignity, for peace. In 1911, the holiday was first celebrated on March 19 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Then, more than a million men and women participated in the demonstrations. Except the right to vote and to hold leading positions, women have gained equal production rights with men.
And then he said May 12, 1912. In Russia, the first International Women's Day was celebrated in 1913 in St. Petersburg. In a petition to the mayor was told about the organization "... research on women's issues in the morning." The authorities have given permission and 2 March 1913, in a building Kalashnikova Grain Exchange in Poltava street gathered fifteen thousand people. The agenda included issues scientific readings: the right to vote for women, public provision of maternity on the high cost of living. The following year, in many European countries on March 8, or about this day, the women organized a march to protest against the war.
In 1917, the Russian women took to the streets on the last Sunday in February with the slogan "Bread and Peace." After 4 days, the Emperor Nicholas II abdicated, the interim government guarantees to women the right to vote. This historic day fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar, which was then used in Russia, and on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar.
International Women's Day on 8 March, the first years of Soviet power became a national holiday. Since 1965, this day was not working. There was a festive and ritual. On this day, celebrations state accountable to the public on the implementation of state policy on women. Gradually, International Women's Day in the country was losing its political color.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union on March 8 was on the list of public holidays of the Russian Federation. Is International Women's Day and in the CIS countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Belarus, the International Women's Day, in Uzbekistan as Mother's Day, in Armenia it is celebrated on April 7 as a Day of Maternity and Beauty.
