International Women's Day celebrated on March 8 has become a day of marches for women's rights and equality throughout the world.
Although COVID-19 dampened participation in many countries, women still raised their voices on the streets on different continents, especially as the pandemic has worsened inequalities faced by women in terms of labor, household chores, and gender violence. In 2021, women and LGBTQ+ people marched against political and gender violence and for reproductive and sexual health.
Here is a wrap-up from Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe on March 8, 2021, based on tweets and contributors’ photos.
The women's day has been celebrated for well over a century, with the first one in 1911
International Women's Day (IWD), celebrated on March 8, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The women's day has been celebrated for well over a century, with the first one in 1911.
The day marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality.
Marked annually on March 8th, women's day is one of the most important days of the year to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about women's equality, lobby for accelerated gender parity and fundraise for female-focused charities.
From Suffrage To Sisterhood: What Is Feminism And What Does It Mean?
Held on March 8, International Women’s Day celebrates the progress women have made over the last century, and the inspiring women who helped make that progress happen. From the suffragist movement of the 1800s to the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, women have used the power of language and oration to inspire countless people.
Early feminism was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment in Europe during the late 1700s. The movement focused on reason and equality for all, and it ultimately inspired the American and French Revolutions. Think of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Of course, that whole all men are created equal thing didn’t apply to women or people of color at the time. That was a problem and a great source of tension for early feminism.
In the UK, Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist, published A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792, promoting the then-radical idea that women be educated on the same level as their male peers. The word feminism itself was first coined in 1837 by French philosopher, Charles Fourier (as féminisme). It originally referred to “feminine qualities or character,” but that sense isn’t used any more. Toward the end of the century, the word came to refer to equal rights for women and became inextricably linked to the suffragist movement.
