International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8th. It is a way to spread awareness about the long fight for women’s rights and celebrate the victories. Let’s talk about the meaning behind this day, as well as some important milestones acknowledged this year.  

International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1910, when Clara Zetkin, the leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, proposed that women’s rights and history should be celebrated on a yearly basis. Following this event, International Women’s Day was honored on March 19th in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany for the first time in history.  

A lot has changed since the 1910’s, however, women’s rights are still facing threats all over the world. That is one of the many reasons why it is important for us to celebrate the headway being made. Today, I invite you to look at some global women’s rights wins from 2024.

To start, Urgent Action Fund, a feminist activist group, reported that 2024 was the biggest year of grants they’ve ever had!  The group received about 600 grants and nearly 6 million dollars for their movement to fund the feminist movement. Additionally, this year, Urgent Action Fund supported more frontline activists than ever before.

Let’s not forget that feminism can go hand-in-hand with many other global issues. In 2024, a group of 2,500 senior women successfully sued Switzerland for its lack of climate action. Their successful lawsuit is a great example of this year’s wins for the feminist movement as it shows how action can help more than one issue in the world.

There have also been many milestones of women making history and paving the way for change in previously male-dominated fields. For example, Claudia Goldin, an economic historian and labor economist, became the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics this year.

Overall, women’s rights have been an important subject since the beginning of time. Despite tremendous progress, all over the world women are still fighting for equality. It is the reason why we have International Women’s Day and must celebrate women’s contributions to our world!