National Woman's Day facts for kids
Woman's Day, also known as National Woman's Day (a retronym in regard to the later international observance), was a commemoration conceived by labor activist Theresa Malkiel, and organized principally in New York City by the Socialist Party of America on the last Sunday in February in 1909 and 1910. It was the immediate predecessor to International Women's Day which began to develop globally in 1911, although it was still observed in the United States in February rather than in March for several years.
Background
There is an account of Woman's Day being inspired by an 1857 garment strike in New York City, but this appears to be a fabrication from a French ideological dispute. Neither was it based on a particular strike in 1908, as is sometimes stated.
Some American women socialists disagreed with a resolution at the 1907 International Socialist Women's Conference that discouraged cooperation with non-socialist suffrage activists, and subsequently in 1908 the Woman's National Committee led by Theresa Malkiel was established by the Socialist Party of America and they expressed broad support for suffrage.
The Socialist Party first called in December 1908 for demonstrations for women's suffrage in the coming February.
Events held
On February 23, 1909, Leonora O'Reilly addressed an audience of 2,000 at the Murray Hill Lyceum. There were also events at the Brooklyn Labor Lyceum and at the Parkside Church in Brooklyn, where Charlotte Perkins Gilman spoke.
On February 27, 1910, Rose Schneiderman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Meta L. Stern spoke at Carnegie Hall, and expressed sympathy for the Philadelphia general strike. This was the first time it was actually known as "Woman's Day". By this year, there were also commemorations spreading across the United States, as reported in The Progressive Woman.
On February 25, 1911, May Wood Simons and Bertha M. Fraser spoke at Carnegie Hall.
Like International Workers' Day (May Day), International Women's Day originated early on in the United States, but eventually achieved greater 20th century popularity outside of it.
