Happy IWD! I was curious as to what the point of the day was, so I looked
here. And, while I expected that the day was to commemorate the acheivements of women, I didn't know that it was also to commemorate the Triange Waist Fire.
I didn't click on the link, but that just caught my eye. The Triangle Waist Fire, for one, wasn't just for women. It dealt with workers' rights as well as women's rights and child labor. Basically, this is what happened:
Well, first: It was common practice of many owners to lock factory doors while their employees worked. This was to prevent theft, as well as other things. Furthermore, women could not leave the factory without being checked. They were underpaid, given horrible working conditions, had dangerous jobs, and sometimes tried to steal scraps of fabric. The workers were mostly women (ages as low as 12 or 14), but there were also a few men who were considered more skilled than the women and, consequently, paid more. The Traingle Waist Company was a company that made waists. Shirt-waists, is the full name. Nowadays known as blouses. They dealt with lots and lots of cotton. The workers would cut the outlines for the blouses and toss the scraps in a bin under a table. What's a fun fact about cotton? Hightly flammable. Fabric and air, is all cotton is. And, guess what, people often smoked while working, eventhough they weren't allowed to. Especially the men. Their job was actually a job that required more skill, so they were harder to replace.
So
this is what happens. A fire starts. No one notices at first, but eventually someone yells and they try to put it out. They didn't have anything on hand, so they tried to stamp it out. Didn't work. Someone runs for a fire extinguisher, but the hose was disconnected. The fire pail is empty. The exit door is locked. Eventually, they start to get people down the elevator, but there just isn't enough time. In less than 20 minutes, the entire place is engulfed in fire. Cotton is
very flammable. When it got bad enough, the elevator operator couldn't risk going back up to get more people. So, women jumped down the elevator shaft as he was going down. A couple landed on the elevator just fine, but were eventually crushed to death. They started on the 8th story and when people are jumping on you from that distance, things aren't happy. When the firemen got there, they found out something interesting. During the time, it was a new fad to make taller and taller buildings. This building was 10 stories, really tall. Well, the ladders the firemen had only went up to the 7th story. They couldn't help. Eventually, women started jumping out the window into the ... the firemen's catcher thing, but 7 stories is too high to jump from. They all died trying to jump down in false hope. Many were burning as the jumped down, many fell out while burning, and many were corpses even on the way down.
Anyway, it's a horrible story. They say worst event in New York's history, up until the Twin Towers episode. I'm glad to see there's a day to remind us of the event, though.
Edit: Hm, the Wikipedia article on the Triangle fire is actually wrong in a couple spots, or at least misleading.
Happy International Womens Day! 
