Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash

By: Petra Tsakopoulos

International Women’s Day, annually commemorated on March 8th, was established to honour and support women all around the world. It serves as both an annual celebration of women’s achievements, as well as a day to recognize ongoing issues regarding gender inequality. Common highlighted issues include misrepresentation of women, reproductive rights, gender pay gap, violence against women, and much more.

The idea of a Women’s Day initially came to be as a result of the numerous labor movements that took place in the early 1900s. As a response to this, in 1909 the Socialist Party of America declared a National Women’s Day in the United States.

In following years, at a conference held in Copenhagen, a German activist called Clara Zetkin proposed to create an International Women’s Day. This idea was then approved, and took place for the first time in 1911, observed by the countries of Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. It received a vast amount of attention with over one million attendees.

It was in 1917 that the official date of the annual International Women’s Day, that we are all familiar with, was established to be March 8th, after the Russian Women’s Strike. Women in Russia were successful at gathering to protest for their voting rights, and the date became widespread. Furthermore, the date brought even more recognition many years later, after The United Nations legally recognized the date in 1975, which greatly contributed much more to its global recognition.

It is worth noting that International Women’s Day does not belong to any country, corporation, organization or so on. This is a day to show support to any group of women, of any unique experience. As stated by world-renowned feminist journalist, Gloria Steinem, “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist, nor to any one organization, but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”

Overall, International Women’s Day plays a very important role in the women’s rights movement. It is a reminder each year to support and advocate for the ongoing challenges that women face.

Works Cited
“About International Women’s Day.” International Women’s Day, http://www.internationalwomensday.com/About. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.
“History of International Women’s Day.” International Women’s Day, http://www.internationalwomensday.com/Activity/15586/The-history-of-IWD. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.