In Austria-Hungary alone, 300 demonstrations took place during International Women’s Day in 1911.
The demonstrations formed part of the first large international observance of International Women’s Day, held on March 19, 1911. More than a million people participated across Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, making the event a major mobilization by socialist and working-class women.
The Austrian-Hungarian demonstrations demanded political rights, especially women’s suffrage, as well as access to public office and better treatment at work. The figure of 300 refers to demonstrations across the empire, not to 300 separate marches in Vienna alone.
Vienna hosted the best-known Austrian event. Thousands marched along the Ringstrasse, and contemporary accounts describe roughly 20,000 women and men taking part in the capital’s major procession. Austria’s women did not receive the vote until 1918, after the Habsburg monarchy collapsed and the Republic of Austria was established.
Another common confusion is the date: International Women’s Day did not originally have a fixed March 8 date. The 1911 events were held on March 19.