International Women’s Day

This week on Sprouts we celebrate International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day has its origins in socialist gatherings of women and strikes of women garment factory workers more than 100 years ago. This show briefly explores that history, including an interview of a professor of Russian and Soviet history describing the 1917 women’s strike in St. Petersburg that led not only to the codification of March 8 as the official date of IWD, but to the downfall of the Russian czar, Nicolas II. It then brings the sweatshop issue into contemporary times, with an interview of two activists from the University of Iowa chapter of Students against Sweatshops, whose work brought changes to university licensing policies around the year 2000. The show concludes with an interview of Teresa Haas of the Worker Rights Consortium, the only independent international labor monitoring organization in the world, describing the WRC’s work on fire safety in Bangladesh as well as its ongoing monitoring of factories manufacturing collegiate apparel.

James Andrews, Laura Crossett , Teresa Haas

production: Richard Morrison, Helen Gunderson
music: “Rebel Girl” (Joe Hill) performed by Truckstop Honeymoon Producer: Greta Anderson


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