What Is International Women's Day?
International Women's Day is an annual holiday meant to celebrate and recognize women across the globe.
Many holidays are meant to celebrate and highlight certain people or events. There are all kinds of holidays dedicated to specific groups and demographics of people. International Women's Day is one of those holidays and was established to celebrate women, honor their accomplishments, and highlight the struggles and progress women as a demographic have undergone.
When is International Women's Day?
Countries all over the world started celebrating some kind of Women's Day since the early 1900's. In 1909, National Women's Day in the US was celebrated on February 28th. In 1911, Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland celebrated International Women's Day on March 19th. But around 1913, a more official date was decided for this annual holiday. Now, International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8th every year.
What is International Women's Day?
International Women's Day is an international holiday recognized by the United Nations (UN) and celebrated across the globe by all cultures, nationalities, religions, races, and genders.
International Women's Day isn't just a day to celebrate women. It's a holiday centered around fighting for gender equality around the globe. It is a day to reflect upon the progress the world, and your own country or state have made in the fight for gender equality, and to think about the ways we can still improve.
There's a lot of work left to be done in the fight for gender equality, and the purpose of International Women's Day is to remind us all of that.
How was International Women's Day Started?
International Women's Day (sometimes shortened to IWD) is not a holiday belonging to any one country. It is an internationally recognized holiday that belongs to us all.
International Women's Day began with large movements enacting change for women's rights as early as 1908. One of the first National Women's Day took place on February 28th in the US.
The proposal for an International Women's Day first started in 1910 when Clara Zetkin first brought up the idea in an International Conference of Working Women. She wanted this day to be the same day, every year, that all nations could take part in. Her proposal was met with unanimous approval, and thus International Women's Day was officially created.
It wasn't until 1913 that the date of this holiday was officially set to March 8th for everyone around the globe, and it wasn't until 1975 that the holiday was officially recognized by the UN.
In 1996 the UN began incorporating an annual theme into each International Women's Day, which you can see and take part in on the UN's official website. For example, in the year 2020, the International Women's Day theme was: I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights.
Other Holidays Like International Women's Day
International Women's Day isn't the only holiday of its kind. You can find all kinds of international holidays to celebrate on the UN's calendar. There is a World AIDs Day, an International Migrants Day, a Human Rights Day, and so many more! International Men's Day for instance, was first founded by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh in 1999.
When is International Men's Day?
International Men's Day takes place on November 19th every year. International Men's Day is meant to inspire men all around the world to do and be better. It is also a day to bring awareness to men's issues.
Holidays are marked days and celebrations that are meant to bring people together, celebrate, honor, or bring awareness to something. International holidays are cool ways that we can come together as an entire planet and be mindful about things like human rights issues, or the issues that face men and women.