International Women's Day 2018
Events | News | Video | Multimedia | Join the conversation
The theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March, is “Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives”.
This year, International Women’s Day comes on the heels of unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality and justice. Sexual harassment, violence and discrimination against women has captured headlines and public discourse, propelled by a rising determination for change.
People around the world are mobilizing for a future that is more equal. This has taken the form of global marches and campaigns, including #MeToo in the United States of America and its counterparts in other countries, protesting against sexual harassment and violence, such as #YoTambien in Mexico, Spain, South America and beyond, #QuellaVoltaChe in Italy, #BalanceTonPorc in France and #Ana_kaman in the Arab States; “Ni Una Menos” (‘not one less’), a campaign against femicide that originated in Argentina; and many others, on issues ranging from equal pay to women’s political representation.
International Women’s Day 2018 is an opportunity to transform this momentum into action, to empower women in all settings, rural and urban, and celebrate the activists who are working relentlessly to claim women’s rights and realize their full potential.
Events
Events and activities around Asia-Pacific to celebrate the International Women's Day 2018
Throughout Asia-Pacific, UN Women and partners organized series of events to celebrate an unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality, safety and justice, recognizing the tireless work of activists who have been central to this global push for gender equality.
News
The UN Secretary-General’s Message on International Women’s Day
Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the greatest human rights challenge in our world... More
Time is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives
In her message for International Women’s Day on March 8, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka draws attention to the work of rural and urban activists who have fought for women’s rights and gender equality...More
Video
International Women’s Day 2018: The time is now
This year, UN Women celebrates the rural and urban activists who have transformed the lives of women around the world. From grassroots campaigns to global movements, women’s activism over the decades has paved the way for women’s rights and a more equal future.
Gender Equal Peaceful World - GEPW
YouTube star PIKOTARO follows up his viral sensation “PPAP” with a new hit to promote women’s empowerment and peace, “Gender Equal Peaceful World”, and is interviewed by UN Women Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Miwa Kato. #GEPW
Ring the Bell for Gender Equality | Thailand
A collaboration between the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Embassy of Sweden and UN Women Asia and the Pacific to advance gender equality in businesses.
Top stories
Women’s leadership, the missing ingredient for peace in Thailand’s southern border provinces
Patimoh Sadiyamu, the first Muslim woman to hold the position of vice provincial governor in Thailand’s southern border provinces of Narathiwat, home to over 2 million residents, and the scene of escalating violence. A native of Yala, one of the three provinces in the area, Sadiyamu, now 52, is not new to politics, having spent almost three decades in the Interior Ministry. But coming from an impoverished rural area where Muslim... More
Sita Rani Gour, a small shop keeper in rural Bangladesh aiming big
Sita is expanding her grocery shop in Rajnagar, eastern Bangladesh, after receiving a one-time grant of 19,000 taka (US$230), from a UN Women programme supported by the Government of Japan and implemented by the non-governmental development organization BRAC. When she first opened, the shop was very small. The new funds have allowed her... More
In the words of Sunita Kashyap: “We believe in trade, not aid”
Before Sunita Kashyap founded Umang, a rural women’s organization, she farmed with her husband, but her work wasn’t perceived to be of equal value. Today, as part of Umang, 3,000 women farmers in India are making and selling their own produce. They are farmers, entrepreneurs, auditors and accountants of their self-help... More
Eight ways you can be a women’s rights advocate today, and every day
Right now women and men around the world are part of an unprecedented movement for women’s rights, equality and justice. From global marches to social media campaigns like #MeToo, women are raising their voices in unison, calling out sexual harassment, organizing for unequal pay and women’s political representation. Join us to celebrate women’s rights activists everywhere, embrace your inner activist and empower the women in your life... More
Multimedia
Timeline: Women of the world, unite!
A single moment can spark a revolution, collective actions can transform laws, creative expression can change attitudes and an invention can alter the course of history. It’s these threads that weave together to propel the women’s movement — even in the face of obstacles. Discover how some of these strands, big and small, have shaped your lives, and the rights and lives of women and girls worldwide... See more
Photo essay: Rural women, human rights
Without rural women and girls, rural communities and urban economies would not function. Yet women and girls are among the people most likely to be poor, to lack access to assets, education, health care and other essential services, and to be hit hardest by climate change. On almost every measure of development, rural women, because of gender inequalities and discrimination, fare worse than rural men or urban women... See more
Learn the facts: Rural women and girls
Without rural women and girls, rural communities and urban economies would not function. Yet women and girls are among the people most likely to be poor, to lack access to assets, education, health care and other essential services, and to be hit hardest by climate change. On almost every measure of development, rural women, because of gender inequalities and discrimination, fare worse than rural men or urban women... See more
Gender equality through the cartoonists’ lens
UN Women and Cartooning for Peace, a non-profit international network of 162 editorial cartoonists from 59 different countries, have joined forces in a collaboration for International Women’s Day and the CSW62... See more
Join the conversation
This International #WomensDay, we ask for equal opportunities and women’s rights at work. Are you with us?
- Main hashtags: #IWD2018 and #TimeIsNow
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