International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 every year. It honours women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements and emphasizes the need for action to accelerate gender equality.
IWD has been celebrated for over a century, with the first gathering in 1911, supported by over a million people. Today, International Women’s Day is a global event that belongs to all groups everywhere; it is not specific to any particular country, organization, or demographic.
International Women’s Day 2025
As Gloria Steinem, a world-renowned feminist, journalist, and activist, reportedly once explained, “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist, nor any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”
Join us on 8 March 2025 to celebrate International Women’s Day with the theme “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.”
This year’s theme calls for action to unlock equal rights, power, and opportunities for all and for a feminist future where no one is left behind. Central to this vision is empowering the next generation—youth, particularly young women and adolescent girls—as catalysts for lasting change.
Why Purple?
Dignity, power, creativity, and hope
Purple is the official colour of International Women’s Day. It symbolizes dignity, power, creativity, and hope and has been used by feminist movements throughout history. Purple, green, and white originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the United Kingdom in 1908. Purple represents justice and dignity, green symbolizes hope, and white represents purity. International Women’s Day celebrates women’s social, economic, and political achievements while advocating for gender equality.
Women’s rights are human rights.
Women in countries worldwide right now are imprisoned or targeted with harassment and violence just for practicing their rights.
Those rights are defined by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the following:
- the right to live a life free from violence and slavery
- the right to be educated
- the right to earn a fair and equal wage
- the right to own property
- the right to free expression
- voting rights
Therefore, International Women’s Day 2025 is the perfect time to stand up for women’s rights. So here’s how women’s rights were under attack in many countries in the past year. Plus, find some ideas of how you can help.
International Women’s Day 2025 Canada | Amnesty International
this International Women’s Day, you can also help raise awareness of the rights of Indigenous women in Canada.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls finished its work more than four years ago. However, this crisis has not gone away. Despite the Calls for Justice made in the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which requests the urgent safety of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, only 2 of the 231 Calls for Justice have been implemented by the Government of Canada in the last four years.
International Women’s Day (IWD) Timeline
First-wave feminist groups, like the suffragettes and suffragists, played a key role in creating International Women’s Day (IWD). They fought for women’s rights, especially the right to vote, and helped lay the foundation for later feminist movements. Critical feminists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Betty Friedan, and Gloria Steinem raised awareness about gender inequality and gathered support for a better world for women. Over time, many groups and events have helped IWD become the lively global movement it is today, welcoming everyone to join in the effort for gender equality. Many factors have contributed to the growth and popularity of IWD.
The timeline of women’s rights worldwide is extensive; here are some important dates in North America and the United Nations.
1776—Abigail Smith Adams, first lady to President John Adams, wrote her ‘Remember the Ladies’ letter on March 31 urging that the Continental Congress consider women’s rights and protections when drafting new laws for the newly independent nation of America, which, on July 4, adopted the Declaration of Independence.
1857 – The first organized strike by women workers occurred in New York City on March 8 with a protest march by women textile workers calling for fair working conditions, a shorter workday, decent wages, and equal rights.
1908 – Women workers in needle trades march through New York City’s Lower East Side on March 8, protesting child labour and sweatshop working conditions and demanding women’s suffrage.
1909 – Theresa Malkiel, head of the Socialist Party of America’s Woman’s National Committee, conceives a ‘National Woman’s Day,’ later designated by the party.
1960-70’s – IWD is supported by second-wave feminists.
1975 – United Nations marks IWD, setting 1975 as International Women’s Year.
1977 – United Nations invites its Member States to mark “any day of the year” as a “Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace,” in accordance with historical and national traditions.
1978 – U.S. institutes Women’s History Week with women’s history to be included in educational curricula.
1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims the week of March 8 as ‘National Women’s History Week.
1987 – National Women’s History Project in the U.S. successfully petitions Congress for all of March to celebrate women’s contributions. Congress passes Pub. L. 100-9 designating March 1987 as Women’s History Month.
1988 – U.S. presidents issued annual proclamations designating March as Women’s History Month and announced a different U.S. theme each year.
1996 – United Nations launches an IWD theme, ‘Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future.’
2001 —The IWD website launches as a free, not-for-profit, user-generated resource hub to ‘Support the Supporters’ and grow mainstream awareness of IWD.
2003—The IWD march in Mexico City on March 8 became one of the most significant IWD events globally, with hundreds of thousands of participants. March 9 is #UNDÍASINNOSOTRAS, ‘A Day Without Us,’ where women ‘disappear’ by not going to work, school, public spaces, etc., to highlight women’s importance and work in Mexican society.
2005 – Google launched its first IWD, Google Doodle.
2007 – Large-scale women’s groups start to emerge, like Women Deliver.
2009 – Google launched its second IWD, Google Doodle, and continued this tradition annually.
2010 – The United Nations launched a gender equality body, UN Women.
2019 – Canada marks ‘Innovate For Change’ as an IWD national theme.
2019 – The most significant international IWD concert, ‘Global Citizen Festival: Power of Women,’ is held in New York City with performances from Cardi B, Pharrell Williams, Michelle Obama, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kerry Washington, and more.
2021 – Canada marks ‘Feminist Recovery: Building Back Better’ as an IWD national theme.
2022 – Canada marks ‘Women Inspiring Women’ as an IWD national theme.
2025 and beyond – IWD continues to see exponential globalized growth as a prolific, mainstream movement participated in by millions worldwide. Celebrities, world leaders, major brands, governments, and many diverse groups collectively support IWD in vastly different and highly varied ways. Such diverse mainstream activity demonstrates the adaptability of IWD in addressing global, regional, and organizational priorities each year.
All IWD activity is valid; that makes IWD so incredibly exciting and impactful. IWD is genuinely inclusive, not exclusive