The International Women’s Day movement continues to impact women around the world by recognizing their social, economical, cultural and political achievements annually on March 8.
“Choose to Challenge” was announced as the 2021 International Women’s Day campaign theme where “a challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change,” according to the IWD website.
While the “Choose to Challenge” campaign theme demonstrates the importance of deciding what to pay attention to, they also encourage individuals to call out issues such as gender inequality and gender bias in order to take part in International Women’s Day.
One way to show support for the campaign theme is having participants to take a photo posing with their hand raised high and share on social media platforms with the hashtags #ChooseToChallenge and #IWD2021 to help promote inclusivity and celebrate women’s accomplishments.
As International Women’s Day continues to be celebrated around the world, the historical events have progressed the movement throughout the years.
During the early 1900s, industrialization contributed to a growing population, but it did not provide equal working opportunities for women.
In 1908, in response to inequality and oppression, about 15,000 working-class women marched the streets of New York City “demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.”
As more women continued to advocate for their rights, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Women’s Day to be held on Feb. 28, 1909, throughout the United States. Throughout the years, “women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.”
Women have continued to experience economic inequality in the workforce. The gender pay gap that “controls the job title, years of experience, industry and location” has decreased because “women in the controlled group make $0.98 for every $1 a man makes,” according to Payscale.
According to the Global Gender Gap 2020 report, it is going to take “more than a lifetime to make equality a reality,” because the report has revealed “gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years.”
The Global Gender Gap 2020 report also measured the gender equality progress of 153 countries, and reported countries such as Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden occupied the “top positions” of achieving gender equality.
In addition, Spain, Mali, Mexico, Albania and Ethiopia have also shown improvement and continue to make progress toward gender equality, according to the International Women’s Day data.
As International Women’s Day continues to advocate for inclusivity, bring gender equality awareness and call out negative stereotypes about women, the movement is also dedicated to ensure a bright future to be filled with an equal and rewarding experience for upcoming generations.
To learn more about the International Women’s Day resources or how to become involved with the movement, visit https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Resources.