In Vienna in 1911, women marched along the Ringstrasse for International Women’s Day.
The first large International Women’s Day demonstrations took place on March 19, 1911, in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Vienna was one of the movement’s most important centers, and women paraded along the Ringstrasse, the grand boulevard encircling central Vienna.
The demonstrators demanded women’s suffrage, access to public office, better working conditions, and an end to discrimination in employment. In Vienna, some marchers carried red flags honoring those who had died during the Paris Commune of 1871, linking the event to the socialist labor movement.
March 19 was the original date chosen for the first broad European observance; March 8 was not yet universal. International Women’s Day later became fixed on March 8, especially after its association with women’s demonstrations in Russia during the 1917 Revolution.