Established in 1977 as a follow-up to the International Year of the Woman, International Women’s Day aims to promote gender equality. Despite many advances in several parts of the world, in 2020 there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of achieving equality for women. The following United Nations statistics point to some areas of improvement:
- Women occupy less than 25% of the seats of parliamentarians.
- 2.7 billion women do not have the same employment opportunities as men.
- One in three women is still a victim of gender-based violence.
Numerous activities in several countries are being organized to mark the day and to continue the work of raising awareness. A campaign around the theme of equality has been launched by the UN to achieve this goal by 2030. A list of 12 actions to be taken for an Equal Generation is available here.
The theme for the 2021 International Women’s Day campaign is #ChooseToChallenge while Canada has opted for #FeministRecovery.
To learn about the history of the struggle for gender equality, visit the UN website.