INternational women's day

By Ashley Peng, 2026

Published 3/8/2024

Every year, the long draw of March provides us the chance to celebrate and honor the role that women have played historically and the role that they still continue to play in society today. The message that Women’s History Month broadcasts is then culminated into International Women’s Day, celebrated each year on March 8. Today, the holiday is meant to continue promotion of gender equality, education for girls and women, reproductive rights, and the ending of gender-based violence. With the age of the internet fully upon us, IWD, as it is abbreviated, has also been given its own modern update, with a website having been launched in 2001 and a theme set each year. Fully recognized as an international holiday in many countries (but not the United States), International Women’s Day continues to become increasingly mainstream and significant.

In 1909, the Socialist Party of America organized a day to commemorate the role of women, and was celebrated almost exclusively in New York City. The following year, a seventeen country International Socialist Women’s Conference was held in Copenhagen, where an annual holiday was proposed. In 1911, the first International Women’s Day was celebrated, mostly in European countries such as in the former Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany, with Russia instituting their own version of the holiday in 1913. These early variations of the holiday were very focused on women’s suffrage, particularly in Germany, where suffrage was finally given in 1918. International Women’s Day was also very much fueled by politics at the time, the holiday jumpstarting what would come to be known as the February Revolution of the larger Russian Revolution. IWD was then adopted by the Soviet Union, leading to its further adoption by many of the world’s new Communist governments. The globalization of IWD began with its acknowledgement by the United Nations in 1975, which has then helped organize the annual themes presented from 1997 onward.

Despite March 8 being the designated day of celebration, that does not mean the roles of women cannot be honored on any other day. It is with the message of IWD in mind that we must continue to fight for the simple fact of equality for women across the globe. For this year’s theme of “Inspire Inclusion,” we can also then use International Women’s Day as a chance for improve the lives of billions of women.