The First International Women’s Day
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
March 19, 1911. The first International Women’s Day is observed, marked by over a million people participating in hundreds of demonstrations across Europe.
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Transcript
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| 0:29.7 | Okay. It's March 19, 1911, in Vienna, the capital of Austria. |
| 0:33.8 | A young man is out for a morning drive in his Ford Model T. |
| 0:39.3 | He turns onto the Ringstrasse, a three-mile circular boulevard that wraps around the heart of the city. He's expecting a pleasant, leisurely drive, but in the distance, he sees what looks like a large crowd |
| 0:45.3 | marching along the road, blocking cars and carriages from making any progress. |
| 0:50.3 | As he gets nearer and is forced to slow down, the man can see that the crowd is made up of hundreds of women. |
| 0:56.9 | They're chanting, waving bright red flags and carrying banners. |
| 1:01.0 | Curious, the man leans over his steering wheel to read what the signs say. |
| 1:05.1 | Some call for women to be given the right to vote and hold public office. |
| 1:09.3 | Others demand the end to sex discrimination |
| 1:11.2 | in the workplace. Some signs even honor the members of the Paris Commune, a radical socialist |
| 1:16.7 | government that briefly seized control of the French capital in 1871. The Paris Commune |
| 1:22.0 | championed progressive feminist and anarchist ideas, and now years later, it's serving as an |
| 1:27.4 | inspiration for these |
| 1:28.5 | women here in Vienna. But even after reading the signs and banners, the man in the Model T can't |
| 1:34.7 | work out what's brought on this protest. As far as he knows, today isn't a major holiday, |
| 1:40.0 | and he hasn't heard of any labor disputes in the city, there are no political elections or anything |
| 1:44.7 | that might prompt a protest except for the first ever international women's day, and it won't |
| 1:50.8 | be the last. |
... |
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