The Radical Roots of International Women’s Day
Saturday is International Women’s Day (IWD), but you probably won’t be hearing about it much in the United States since it’s not an official holiday in our country. Instead we have Women’s History Month…however, the current administration’s moves to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs have resulted in the Pentagon officially cancelling any celebration of Women’s History Month. Sooooo it feels like a good time to brush up on the history of IWD and why we celebrate it in the first place, because it has deeply revolutionary origins!
As Kristen Ghodsee writes in the op-ed piece, Have You Wished Your Mother a Happy International Women’s Day Yet?, the Socialist Party of America organized the first National Women’s Day on February 28, 1909 advocating for better working conditions and voting rights. One year later, Clara Zetkin, a German Marxist feminist, “formally instituted an international day to celebrate working women at the Second International Congress of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1910.”
Zetkin was a fierce advocate for working-class women and a revolutionary thinker who saw women’s emancipation as inseparable from the fight against capitalism. She was a close ally of Rosa Luxemburg and spent her life pushing for socialist policies that would benefit all workers, particularly women. Zetkin believed that women’s liberation could not be achieved through small reforms but through systemic change, and she tirelessly fought to make IWD a global movement.
The idea of celebrating working women caught on in Europe, and by 1911, women in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland were taking to the streets in mass demonstrations. In 1922, it was Vladimir Lenin who declared March 8 to be International Women’s Day to honor the roles women played in the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Internationally, IWD was (and still is!) a day of resistance. It wasn’t officially recognized by the United Nations until 1975, and even now, it’s largely ignored in the United States. Instead, Americans prefer to focus on celebrating women on Mother’s Day, a holiday that highlights women in their caregiving roles rather than as activists, workers, or leaders.
The Problem With Mother’s Day as a Replacement for IWD
And listen, there’s nothing wrong with celebrating mothers. Anyone who’s familiar with my work knows that I deeply believe in supporting and uplifting them. But it’s telling that in the U.S., Mother’s Day is widely celebrated while IWD is barely acknowledged. Why? Because Mother’s Day reinforces a traditional, comfortable role for women and one that doesn’t challenge the status quo.
As writer Ghodsee explains:
“Socialists embraced the radical idea that a woman is more than a mother, though she may be that, too. They fought to create a world that also valued women as workers, as citizens, and as fully equal members of society. They desired an economic system in which a woman need not be dependent on a man, where she would not have to be a superhero to successfully raise two kids after their father abandons them.”
International Women’s Day is about challenging oppression and demanding that women be recognized for everything they contribute; not just as mothers, but as workers, activists, and leaders. It’s about recognizing the structures that still hold women back and demanding better.
How IWD Reflects Rebel Leaders Values
At its core, International Women’s Day is about redefining leadership and challenging systems that were never designed for us, which is exactly what Rebel Leaders stands for: the courage to question dominant narratives, the willingness to resist structures of oppression, and the radical belief that leadership is not reserved for those in power, but for those who take action. The women who first marched for IWD didn’t wait for permission to demand change, instead they created new possibilities through collective action.
So this Saturday, maybe send your mother a bouquet of flowers and a card to celebrate every woman who dares to lead differently, who pushes against outdated expectations, and who envisions a world where leadership is rooted in equity, inclusion, and justice. Because leadership isn’t about titles or permission. It’s about action. And the world needs us to keep pushing forward.