International Women’s Day is a holiday held on March 8 globally to celebrate the contributions of women socially, economically, culturally and politically and to shine a spotlight on ongoing women’s issues.

Thursday 10th March, 2022

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International Women’s Day is a holiday held around the globe on March 8 in order to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

International Women’s Day is commemorated in various ways by different groups and cultures in countries around the world. It marks a call to action to accelerate women’s equality and an opportunity to shine a spotlight on women’s issues globally.

The day has been commemorated for well over a century and has its origins in the universal female suffrage and socialist movements of the early 20th century. The first IWD gathering in 1911 was supported by more than a million people.

Today, the holiday serves as a focal point for the 21st century women’s rights movement and is an opportunity for longstanding issues including gender equality, reproductive rights and violence and abuse against women to be addressed.

SOCIALIST ORIGINS

International Women’s Day was instigated by various socialist and communist groups and factions in the early 20th century.

A ‘National Women’s Day’ was first organised by the Socialist Party of America in New York in February 1909, which the inspired German delegates to the 1910 International Socialist Women’s Conference to propose a ‘Special Women’s Day’ to be organised annually and celebrated globally.

Women later gained suffrage in Soviet Russia at the beginning of the February Revolution and International Women’s Day was made a holiday on March 8.

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Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin presided over the first official March 8 celebration, claiming, “For under Capitalism the female half of the human race is doubly oppressed… The second and most important step is the abolition of the private ownership of land and the factories. This and this alone opens up the way towards complete and actual emancipation of women.”

ADOPTION BY THE UNITED NATIONS

Following the initial March 8 celebration in Soviet Russia, International Women’s Day went on to be recognised on that date by the socialist movement and other communist countries in Europe and around the world

IWD was later coopted by the global feminist movement in the 1960s and become more popular in western countries. It eventually became a mainstream global holiday after adoption by the United Nations in 1977.

OFFICIAL IWD THEMES

Since the United Nations General Assembly invited member states in 1977 to proclaim March 8 as an official UN holiday for women’s rights and world peace, the day has been commemorated annually by much of the world.

The UN centres each year’s observance around a particular theme or issue pertaining to women’s rights.

Women later gained suffrage in Soviet Russia at the beginning of the February Revolution and International Women’s Day was made a holiday on March 8.

The 2021 IWD theme was ‘Women In Leadership: Achieving An Equal Future In A COVID-19 World’, highlighting the sacrifices and struggle of women working in the healthcare sector, as caregivers, innovators and community organisers throughout the pandemic.

IWD 2022

This year the official UN theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Gender Equality Today For A Sustainable Tomorrow’. The idea being to shine a light on the contribution of women and girls around the world working within their communities to promote climate change awareness, mitigation and response

For more information on IWD 2022 and the International Women’s Day movement, visit the International Women’s Development Agency site: ida.org.au