As women around the world gather today with great motivation and pride surrounding the various movements like #PressforProgress, MeToo and #TimesUp, there’s a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity. In a time when the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report finds that “gender parity is over 200 years away,” Press for Progress is this year’s International Women’s Day campaign theme.
“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization, but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights,” Gloria Steinem, world-renowned feminist, journalist and activist, said.
The first observation of International Women’s Day took place in 1909 when “15,000 women marched through the streets of New York demanding improved pay, shorter hours and voting rights,” according to USA Today. Then in 1975, the United Nations proclaimed that year to be International Women’s Year and officially made March 8 the observed day.
To highlight gender inequality in 2018, women around the world have found ways – both large and small – to protest today.
“There is a lot to fight for: Engage! Women and men alike. We need power to make equality a reality,” Margrethe Vestager, the European competition commissioner, tweeted.
Here are a few ways women are fighting for equality on International Women’s Day:
Spain
Feminist groups in Spain are leading a “domestic strike” in which women aren’t spending any money and avoiding all household cores for the day.
England
A strike organized by the Women’s Strike Assembly U.K. via social media is taking place in England – “Today #WeStrike! Wear red, bring an umbrella & join us.”
France
In France, “where the gender pay gap is 25 percent,” the New York Times reported that the newspaper, Libération, sold Thursday’s edition at a lower price to women – 2 euros for women, and €2.50 for men.
Philippines
Women in Manila, Philippines used International Women’s Day to “denounced President Rodrigo Duterte as among the worst violators of women’s rights in Asia,” according to the NYT, where hundreds protested in Plaza Miranda handing out roses to the mothers, sisters and widows of those suspected of drug offenses who were killed under Duterte’s new drug crackdown.
South Korea
Many women’s rights leaders took to the streets of Seoul collectively under the #MeToo campaign, which has “gained steam” in South Korean as of recent.
Afghanistan
Prior to today, women in Afghanistan were afraid to leave their homes under Taliban rule, but today, hundreds of women marched through Kabul in solidarity to give Afghan woman a voice. Collectively, they are fighting for education and protection from violence and oppression in the face of the patriarchic system.
United States
There are hundreds of protests scheduled throughout the U.S. with one of the biggest rallies organized by International Women’s Strike and held at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village where thousands of women will march to Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan calling for a day of action for women’s rights.
And in Washington D.C. observance of International Women’s day will include the International Women’s Day Forum, along with rallies outside the White House and Capitol Building.
This global day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, according to the International Women’s Day website. And this year women around the world unite to think, act and be gender inclusive.
Happy International Women’s Day! We’re celebrating the women who have changed the world.
Here’s all of the amazing women who have received the #NobelPrize and their remarkable achievements at the time of the award. #IWD2018 pic.twitter.com/isKJHSGjsj
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) March 8, 2018
For a list of events, click here.
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