First noticed greater than 115 years in the past, it’s developed right into a widespread celebration that honours ladies previous and current who fought for gender equality and for funding female-focused charities.
It additionally appears forward: celebrating future generations of girls and all of the unimaginable female-led actions taking place world wide.
Underneath the brand new annual theme, organisers are inviting women and men to partake in marketing campaign efforts to lift consciousness.
Right here’s what Worldwide Ladies’s Day is about and how one can become involved on this yr’s occasion.
What’s Worldwide Ladies’s Day?
Worldwide Ladies’s Day (IWD) is a worldwide day celebrating the social, financial, cultural, and political achievements of girls.
Origins in ladies’s suffrage have developed right into a day of celebration and development of girls’s rights.
How did Worldwide Ladies’s Day start?
The primary official Worldwide Ladies’s Day was in 1975, when it was recognised by the United Nations (UN).
However its origins date again to 1908, when a ladies’s rights march in New York Metropolis drew 15,000 folks advocating for higher pay and voting rights.
IWD was then commemorated in the US on February 28, 1909, with nations like Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland becoming a member of the event in 1911.
Clara Zetkin recommended the occasion be taken world on the Worldwide Convention of Working Ladies in Copenhagen in 1910.
The date wasn’t formalised till a wartime strike in 1917, when Russian ladies demanded “bread and peace”. 4 days into the strike, the tsar was pressured to abdicate, and the provisional authorities granted ladies emancipation.
The strike started on March 8, and this turned the date that Worldwide Ladies’s Day is widely known.
What’s the theme this yr for Worldwide Ladies’s Day?
The theme for Worldwide Ladies’s Day 2026 is ‘Give to Achieve’ and is supposed to emphasize that giving time, knoweldge and help can profit everybody.
In accordance with the IWD web site: “We will all give our help to achieve development for ladies and women.
“As people, giving help means calling out stereotypes, difficult discrimination, questioning bias, celebrating ladies’s success, and extra.”
“Sharing our data and encouragement with others can be key.
“On a regular basis, in all places, how will you actively give your help to achieve gender equality?”
What’s taking place on the day and in London?
There are many occasions taking place throughout London to mark Worldwide Ladies’s Day on March 8, in addition to Ladies’s Historical past Month. Among the occasions chances are you’ll wish to participate in embrace:
Shoreditch Town Hall: An IWD tour of the Grade II Listed constructing, recalling the tales of suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, and girls’s rights advocates, together with Helen Taylor, and Henrietta Girling OBE.
Soho: The Her-Story Worldwide Ladies’s Day Live performance is going down at The Phoenix Arts Membership, bringing collectively a mixture of musical theatre performances from ladies in the neighborhood.
Bishopgate: IWD pledges workshop and charity run, inviting folks to take pleasure in a “brunch-style gathering centred on generosity and intention”.
Piccadilly: Afternoon tea is being hosted at Fortnum & Mason, bringing collectively ladies from all walks of life for significant conversations and fundraising.
The IWD campaign is calling for people to use this year’s hashtags and for all IWD events to include a component of women-focused fundraising.
The Worldwide Ladies’s Day web site additionally contains an arsenal of free resources, together with graphics and occasion concepts so you may participate in your personal manner.
Will we nonetheless want an Worldwide Ladies’s Day?
The brief reply is sure.
Whereas ladies’s rights and the equality narrative have excelled in some elements of the world, the truth is that girls nonetheless face numerous challenges due to their gender — even within the UK.
The World Financial Discussion board beforehand claimed that gender parity is a few century away, which means there’s a protracted strategy to go.
The World Financial institution additionally revealed that 2.4 billion ladies of working age world wide don’t obtain equal financial alternatives in comparison with males.
This marketing campaign is as a lot for future generations as it’s for folks immediately. It’s about bringing these subjects to the forefront, shining a lightweight on the challenges and discovering impactful outcomes.
