Sunday marks International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day will be observed on Sunday across the country, as it will be elsewhere in the world, under the theme ‘Digit ALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’.

The president and the prime minister have issued separate messages to mark the day.

The United Nations has been observing the day as International Women’s Day since 1975. This year, the theme is “Rights, Justice and Opportunities for All Women". The day will be celebrated worldwide through various programmes highlighting the need for immediate action—not merely discussion—regarding women’s rights and dignity, while also celebrating women’s economic, political and social achievements.

The theme aims to encourage everyone to contribute towards establishing gender equality in society. It also seeks to promote women’s empowerment through cooperation, support, and sharing of resources, conveying the message that the development of women benefits society and the economy equally.

The observance of the day has its roots in the historical struggle of women workers to secure their rights. In 1857, women workers from textile factories took to the streets in New York, United States, to protest wage discrimination, demand fixed working hours, and oppose inhumane working conditions. The procession faced repression by government forces.

On 28 February 1909, the first international women’s conference was organised at a rally arranged by the Social Democratic Women’s Organisation in New York, under the leadership of German socialist leader Clara Zetkin.

Clara, a German politician and one of the founders of the German Communist Party, later proposed at the second International Women’s Conference, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1910, that 8 March be observed annually as International Women’s Day.

Around 100 women representatives from 17 countries attended that conference and decided that the day would be observed from 1911 as a day for women’s equal rights. Socialists from different countries took the lead in observing the day, and from 1914, 8 March began to be celebrated in several countries.

The United Nations formally recognised 8 March as International Women’s Day in 1975 and called upon countries to observe it. Since then, the day has been celebrated across the globe with due importance, with a specific theme announced every year.

In Bangladesh, various programmes have been undertaken at the national level under the auspices of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to observe the day. Different offices and organisations have also launched diverse initiatives to mark the occasion.