What's the timeline of International Women's Day?

International Women's Day (IWD) has a long and powerful history of collective action.

For over a century, IWD has provided an important opportunity for groups worldwide advocating for gender equality.

Today, IWD is a movement. IWD is the result of its many tenacious parts.

Let's look at how IWD came to be, the various occurrences that catapulted IWD to what it is today, and why IWD remains a collective movement belonging to all groups, everywhere.

As Gloria Steinem, world-renowned feminist, journalist and activist reportedly once explained "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."

So how did IWD start?
 

International Women's Day (IWD) Timeline 

Many groups, such as suffragettes and suffragists, played a foundational role in shaping IWD by championing women's rights causes, particularly voting rights, and laying the groundwork for broader feminist movements. Additionally, many feminists educated about gender inequality and rallied support for a better world for women, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Betty Friedan, and Gloria Steinem. There are many groups and events that have actively forged IWD to become what it is today - a vibrant worldwide movement where everyone is welcome and included to help advance gender quality.

Here we go ...

1792 - Educational and social equality for women is advocated by English author, Mary Wollstonecraft, in her book 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.'

1857 - First organized strike by working women occurs in New York City on March 8 with a protest march by women textile workers calling for fair working conditions with a shorter work day and decent wages, alongside equal rights.

1903 - Independent women's movement,  Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), is founded in Manchester, England. 

1907 - First edition of Votes for Women, the newspaper of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), is launched.

1908 - Women workers in needle trades march through New York City's Lower East Side on March 8, protesting child labor and sweatshop working conditions, and demanding women's suffrage

1910 - Leader of Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, Clara Zetkin, tables idea of an International Women's Day at second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, receiving unanimous support from over one hundred women representing 17 countries.

1911 - Sixth Conference of International Woman Suffrage Alliance is held in Stockholm, Sweden.

1911 - UK Suffragette, Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst, publishes "The Suffragette: The History Of The Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910".

1913 - First observance of IWD in Russia, with socialist women organizing protests and rallies demanding better working conditions, equal rights, and the right to vote.

1914 - Women's suffrage march is held in London, England from Bow to Trafalgar Square, with suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to address the marhc.

1921 - IWD becomes an official holiday in the Soviet Union.

1922 - Vladimir Lenin declares March 8 as the date for IWD, honoring women's role in 1917 Russian Revolution.

1922 - First celebration of IWD in China by the Chinese women’s movement.

1928 - First IWD rally is held in Australia in Sydney, organized by Militant Women's Group of the Communist Party.

1950 - China officially recognizes IWD, aligning with Communist Party's goals of promoting gender equality.

1957 - IWD becomes a public holiday in Mongolia. 

1960s - China leader, Mao Zedong, announces IWD's first slogan: 'Women hold up half the sky' emphasizing women's essential role in building socialism and encouraging women to work and be active in public life.

1961 - Angola declares IWD an official holiday.

1966 - Cuba declares IWD an official holiday.

1970's - IWD is taken up by second-wave feminists

1975 - Vietnam declares IWD an official holiday.

1975 - Mozambique declares IWD an official holiday.

1975 - United Nations first celebrates IWD, marking 1975 as International Women's Year

1977 - United Nations invites 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 issues Presidential Proclamation declaring week of March 8 National Women's History Week.

1980's - Algeria declares IWD an official holiday.

1980's - Laos declares IWD an official holiday.

1987 - National Women's History Project in the U.S. successfully petitions Congress for all of March as a celebration of women's contributions. Congress passes Pub. L. 100-9 designating March 1987 as Women's History Month.

1988 - U.S. presidents issue annual proclamations designating March as Women's History Month, and announcing a different theme each year.

1996 - Zambia declares IWD an official holiday.

1996 - United Nations asks members to designate any day of the year for "Women's Peace."

1998 - Kazakhstan declares IWD an official holiday.

2001 - IWD website launches as a free, not-for-profit, user-generated resource hub to 'Support the Supporters.'

2003 – IWD march in Mexico City on March 8 becomes one of the largest IWD events globally, with hundreds of thousands of participants. March 9 is #UNDÍASINNOSOTRAS, “A Day Without Us” wherein women 'disappear' by not going to work, school, public spaces, etc as if they actually don’t exist, to highlight women's importance in Mexican society, so their hard work is valued.

2007 - Large-scale women's groups start to emerge like Women Deliver.

2010 - Armenia declares IWD an official holiday.

2010 - Botswana declares IWD an official holiday.

2010 - United Nations launches gender equality group, UN Women.

2013 - Beyoncé first marks IWD sharing a powerful message on Instagram.

2019 - Largest international IWD concert, 'Global Citizen Festival: Power of Women,' is held in New York City featuring top artist performances from Cardi B, Pharrell Williams, Michelle Obama, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kerry Washington, and more.

2020 - IWD continues as a global movement, marked by millions in their own way, with all activity being valid, making IWD inclusive, not exclusive.

2025 and beyond - IWD enjoys exponential globalized growth as a prolific, mainstream occurrence participated in by millions worldwide. 

Make IWD your day

So make IWD your day, and mark it in any way you believe can help forge gender equality.

IWD is a day of collective abundance. IWD's history is too deep, and too long, to be forgotten, or met with apathy.

We still, and always will, need an IWD. We have lots of work to do!

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

Galatians 6:9