International Women's Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women's Day, is celebrated on March 8 every year. The earliest Women's Day observance was held on February 28, 1909, in New York and organized by the Socialist Party of America. A Women's Day demonstration on March 8, 1917 in Petrograd sparked the Russian Revolution. Declared a national holiday in the Soviet Russia in 1917, it was predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted in 1977 by the United Nations.Ida Wells - American journalist, suffragist, & civil rights activist
Lotfia El Nadi - Egypt’s first female pilot
Frida Kahlo - Mexican painter & activist
Lina Bo Bardi - Italian-born Brazilian architect
Olga Skorokhodova - Soviet scientist & researcher in the field of deaf & blind communication
Miriam Makeba - South African singer & civil rights activist
Sally Ride - American astronaut & the first American woman in space
Halet Çambel - Turkish archaeologist & the first Muslim woman to compete in the Olympics
Ada Lovelace - English mathematician, writer, & the world’s first computer programmer
Rukmini Devi - Indian dancer & choreographer credited with reviving Indian classical dance
Cecilia Grierson - Argentine physician, reformer, & the first woman in Argentina to receive a medical degree
Lee Tai-young - Korean lawyer & activist who was Korea’s first female lawyer & judge
Suzanne Lenglen - French tennis champion who popularized the sport
The earliest organized Women's Day observance was held on February 28, 1909, in New York. It was organized by the Socialist Party of America in remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies Garment Worker's Union.[3] There was no strike on March 8, despite later claims. In 1913 Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Saturday in February (by Julian calendar then used in Russia).Although there were some women-led strikes, marches, and other protests in the years leading up to 1914, none of them happened on March 8. In 1914 International Women's Day was held on March 8, possibly because that day was a Sunday, and now it is always held on March 8 in all countries. The 1914 observance of the Day in Germany was dedicated to women's right to vote, which German women did not win until 1918. In London there was a march from Bow to Trafalgar Square in support of women's suffrage on March 8, 1914. Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.
From its official adoption in Russia following the Soviet Revolution in 1917 the holiday was predominantly celebrated in communist and socialist countries. It was celebrated by the communists in China from 1922, and by Spanish communists from 1936. After the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 the state council proclaimed on December 23 that March 8 would be made an official holiday with women in China given a half-day off. In the West, International Women's Day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace.
