INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM SERIES
Did They “Ethnically Cleanse” International Women’s Day?
For the forgotten ones
When women’s rights advocates started celebrating womanhood and bringing increased awareness to a woman’s plight in a male dominated world via International Women’s Day—celebrated on the 8th of March each year — it was a historic moment that helped shape how women since then have fought for their rights.
Yet when the origins of the Day in 1908 are mentioned, oftentimes key players who led the movement are left out. Pauline Newman, a Jewish immigrant, is one of those “forgotten women” who didn’t fit the face of mainstream feminism and womanhood in her time.
The forgotten ones in history are often black and Jewish women
As with Maria Stewart, whom I wrote about in my essay What If I am A Woman?, it seems likely that race (or Jewish ethnicity) and class were key factors in leaving Pauline out of the history books.
The same can be said for Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Fannie Barrier Williams. As women’s rights advocates, they…
