• This year’s UN theme is DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.
• 37% of women do not use the internet.
• 259 million fewer women than men have internet access.

On March 8, countries around the world observe International Women’s Day (IWD).

According to the United Nations, this year’s theme is DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.

According to the United Nations, women have contributed to information technology since its inception. Nonetheless, it claims that those contributions have received little recognition or significance.

According to the international body, 37% of women do not use the internet. It also claims that 259 million fewer women than men have internet access. Yet, women constitute about half of the world’s population. According to the United Nations, women are vastly underrepresented in jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“Bringing women into technology results in more creative solutions and has greater potential for innovations that meet women’s needs and promote gender equality,” says the U.N.’s website.

For this year’s International Women’s Day, U.S. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement, “Let us work together – across governments, the private sector, and civil society – to build a more inclusive, just, and prosperous world for women, girls, men, and boys everywhere.”

What Is International Women’s Day?

The IWD has its origins in the American social and labor movements.

On March 8, 1857, female employees marched in New York City in protest of unjust working conditions and uneven rights in textile factories. According to the National Archives, the workers demanded a shorter workday and more pay.

Women workers marched through New York City again on March 8, 1908, to protest child labor and bad working conditions and to demand women’s right to vote.

On March 19, 1911, Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland held the first recorded international celebration. Almost a million individuals showed up to support women’s rights at the time.

Following World War II, some countries began to observe March 8 as Women’s Day. In 1977, the United Nations formally designated that date as International Women’s Day. Other countries, including China, Russia, and Uganda, observe it as a national holiday.

Climate change, rural women, and HIV/AIDS have all been topics of previous United Nations festivities.

Since 2007, the United States State Department has given the International Women of Courage Award to over 180 women from 80 nations.

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