1911
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Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. However less than a week later on 25 March, the tragic 'Triangle Fire' in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events. 1911 also saw women's 'Bread and Roses' campaign.
The family photo (above) provided by Eileen Nevitt shows her grandmother, former Triangle Shirtwaist fire survivor Annie Sprinsock, with her infant son Morton Boisen in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1917. Speaking of the fire of 100 years ago that killed 146, Nevitt said of the workers, "They were panic-stricken. It was hellacious, and they ran for their lives the best they could."
