International Women’s Day is meant to celebrate all the achievements of women across the world-- all the contributions they’ve made to social, economic, cultural and political advancements.
It’s celebrated annually on March 8 utilizing the colors purple, green and white and is also a day to focus on calls for gender equality and parity.
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HISTORY
1908: 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding better pay, shorter hours and voting rights.
1909: National Women’s Day was observed for the first time across the United States on February 28.
1910: A second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen first brought up the idea that every year there should be a celebration in every country of women. International Women’s Day was born.
1913: It was agreed that March 8 would be International Women’s Day moving forward.
1975: International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time by the United Nations.
1996: The UN announced their first annual theme.
2001: Internationalwomensday.com platform was launched with the goal of bringing new importance to the day.
2011: The 100 year anniversary of the first International Women’s Day events held in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. President Obama also proclaimed March 2011 Women’s History Month.
THEMES
The theme for 2021 is #ChoosetoChallenge.
The idea is that from challenge comes change, so the theme urges the calling out of gender bias and inequality with the goal of making a major change to make things more inclusive.
It’s a call to action for people of all gender identities to raise their hands in support and solidarity, sharing images on social media using the #ChoosetoChallenge and #IWD2021 to encourage others to stand for a more inclusive world.
Past themes include #EachforEqual, #BalanceforBetter, #PressforProgress, #BeBoldforChange.
