National Woman's Day
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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.[1][2][3]
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.[1] 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.[4]
The Socialist Party first called in December 1908 for demonstrations for women's suffrage in the coming February.[5]