Today is International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day! International Women’s Day also also known as the United Nations (UN) Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace is held annually on March 8 to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history across the world. 

Women are recognized for their social, economic, cultural and political achievements, without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

The UN theme for International Women's Day was: 'I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights'. 

An equal world is an enabled world. How will you help forge a gender equal world?

Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.

International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on the 8th of March every year. It is a focal point in the movement for women's rights. 

After the Socialist Party of America organized a Women's Day in New York City on February 28, 1909, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker and others proposed at the 1910 International Socialist Woman's Conference that "a special Women's Day" be organized annually.

After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted by the feminist movement in about 1967. The United Nations began celebrating the day in 1975.

Commemoration of International Women's Day today ranges from being a public holiday in some countries to being largely ignored elsewhere. In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood.

The day is an official holiday in Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

In some countries, such as Cameroon, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Chile, the day is not a public holiday, but is widely observed nonetheless. On this day it is customary for men to give the women in their lives – friends, mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters, colleagues, etc. – flowers and small gifts (although to many this seems cloyingly old-fashioned and rather to miss the point). In some countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also observed as an equivalent of Mother's Day, where children also give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers. In Russia, the day has lost all political context through the time, becoming simply a day to honor women and feminine beauty. 

Olomoinfo celebrates all women.