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Episode Summary
On March 8th, the world pauses to celebrate International Women’s Day — but most people don’t know how it actually began, or how staggeringly large the invisible economy it points toward really is. In this rapid-fire bonus Factlet, Joshua unpacks the strike that accidentally toppled a 300-year dynasty, puts a hard dollar figure on the world’s most underpaid labor force, and closes with a personal word to the woman behind the work.

Episode Highlights
The Historical Twist
International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th not because of a summit or a declaration, but because of a strike. On that date in 1917, women textile workers in Petrograd walked off the job demanding “Bread and Peace.” When soldiers ordered to suppress the protest refused and marched with the women instead, the movement became unstoppable. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated seven days later, ending three centuries of Romanov rule. The provisional government that followed granted women the right to vote, making Russia one of the first major powers to do so.

The Shadow Economy Stat
According to a 2020 Oxfam study (the largest of its kind) women globally perform 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work every single day. Valued at minimum wage, that labor would be worth $10.8 trillion annually. That’s more than three times the size of the entire global technology industry in case you’re keeping score.

Note: The Oxfam “Time to Care” report (2020) uses minimum wage as a floor, which Oxfam itself describes as a conservative underestimate. The real figure is almost certainly higher.

References 

1. Encyclopædia Britannica. (2024). Russian Revolution. Britannica.com.
2. International Labour Organization. (2018). Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work. ILO.
3. InternationalWomensDay.com. (2026). IWD 2026 campaign theme: #AccelerateAction.
4. Oxfam International. (2020). Time to care: Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis. Oxfam GB.
5. Spartacus Educational. (n.d.). The February Revolution (1917).
6. UK Parliament, House of Lords Library. (2026). International Women’s Day 2026: Women’s rights around the world.
7. UN Women. (2026). International Women’s Day 2026.
8. World Economic Forum. (2024). Global gender gap report 2024.

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