International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated annually on March 8, honours women’s achievements, raises awareness about gender equality, advocates for a future where women have equal rights and opportunities and promotes women’s empowerment.

This global event serves as a platform to highlight women’s social, economic, cultural, and political contributions while advocating for their rights for equality in the society both in political, governance and business industries.

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a crucial event set aside to celebrate women’s achievements and serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and the importance of empowering women worldwide.

History Of International Women’s Day

The history of International Women’s Day dates back to 1975 when the United Nations (UN) advocated for women’s inclusivity and gender equality in everyday life. The union picked March 8 as an annual event to celebrate women’s contribution to society, country and nations of the world.

However, it is important to note here that the first International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 19, 1911, in the United States (US) and several European countries.

The idea and purpose behind International Women’s Day (IWD) stems from the 1908 labour movement, during which numerous women garment workers marched in the streets of New York, demanding better pay, shorter working hours, and voting rights.

It would be recalled that the movement then was spearheaded by the Socialist Party of America as a response to the widespread discrimination and oppression that women faced, particularly in industrialized societies where they worked long hours for low wages in harsh conditions, often without basic rights such as voting or education.

One of the earliest recorded events that contributed to the formation of IWD was a march by female garment workers in New York City on March 8, 1908. Around 15,000 women took to the streets, demanding better wages, shorter working hours, and the right to vote.

Their demands reflected the broader struggle for women’s rights, which was gaining momentum globally.

Significance of International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is observed to recognise the cultural, political, social, and economic achievements made by women.

It serves as an opportunity to inspire efforts to end gender parity, biases and discrimination and achieve gender equality in all spheres of life.

2025 Campaign Theme Of International Women’s Day

The campaign theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, tagged “Accelerate Action”, is a worldwide call to acknowledge strategies, resources, and activities that positively impact women’s advancement and to support and elevate their implementation.

How Does ‘Accelerate Action’ Theme Provide Timely Focus For IWD 2025?

Accelerate Action is a compelling theme for IWD 2025 because it emphasises the urgency of making faster, more effective strides toward gender equality. Here’s why it resonates so well.

1. Progress Is Too Slow

Despite decades of effort, gender inequality remains deeply entrenched in many societies. In areas like economic participation, political representation, and combating gender-based violence, progress has been slow.

To “Accelerate Action” means to move beyond ineffective practice and implement meaningful changes for bold, decisive action that positively impacts gender equality.

2. Addressing Global Setbacks

In recent years, events like the global COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected women, particularly in terms of job losses, increased unpaid caregiving burdens, and heightened domestic violence.

“Accelerate Action” signals that urgent and coordinated measures are necessary to recover lost ground and ensure that women are not left behind in the post-pandemic recovery.

3. Inspiring Momentum For Change

The campaign focus encourages activism and engagement at all levels- political, corporate, and grassroots—motivating individuals, governments, and organizations to take concrete steps toward gender equality.

It empowers those who are already working toward gender justice and calls on those who have been passive to join the movement.

4. Tackling Structural Inequalities

“Accelerate Action” pushes for dismantling systemic barriers that perpetuate inequality, such as unequal pay, limited access to education, and underrepresentation in leadership.

It encourages reforms in institutions and policies, creating a sense of urgency around addressing deep-rooted biases and outdated systems.

5. Focus On Impactful Solutions

With the rise of global movements like #MeToo and women’s advocacy around climate action, the world is more aware of gender injustices.

The theme calls for moving from awareness to action, focusing on measurable outcomes and long-term solutions rather than short-term, superficial changes.

6. Inclusivity And Intersectionality

Accelerating action means recognizing that gender inequality affects different women in different ways—whether due to race, ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic status or further aspects.

The campaign’s focus emphasizes the need for an intersectional approach, ensuring that all women, particularly those most marginalized, benefit from the progress made.

7. A Timely Call For Accountability

The campaign focus serves as a powerful reminder that time is running out to meet global gender priorities.

“Accelerate Action” holds institutions accountable, urging them to deliver on their commitments with greater speed and efficiency.

Five Key Steps To “Accelerate Action,” Advance Women In Leadership

The International Women’s Day (IWD) campaign calls on everyone to “Accelerate Action,” including increasing women’s leadership and representation in the workplace.

In addition to any legal obligations to which an employer must comply, employers could choose to take their own steps; however, here are five key steps to include as we celebrate this year’s IWD.

1. Secure Leadership Commitment: Leaders should demonstrate public commitments to gender equality and promoting women’s advancement. Leaders could set measurable diversity goals to be held accountable for progress.

2. Recruitment And Promotion Practices: Eliminate any form of potential biases in recruiting and promotion processes. This could be through introducing blind hiring processes, using gender-balanced interview panels or crafting inclusive job descriptions that use gender neutral terminology or titles.

Consider introducing clear job frameworks with transparent pay banding and clear pathways for advancement and promotion.

3. Provide Work-Life Integration Support: Evidence shows that women, particularly those at the time they are reaching leadership positions, are often dealing with other out-of-work responsibilities (such as being mothers and caring for elderly parents) in addition to managing the symptoms of menopause.

Employers could provide support by offering policies such as flexible working that can help women thrive (job-sharing opportunities), enhanced parental leave (that encourages both mothers and fathers to share responsibility for childcare), assistance for caregivers and menopause training and policies.

4. Mentorship and Sponsorship: Understanding and supporting women as individuals to become leaders is important. This can be achieved through establishing mentorship and sponsorship programs, where senior women leaders mentor juniors and senior leaders encourage women in the business to advocate and support their career advancement.

5. Foster Inclusive Culture: Employers should seek to cultivate a workplace culture that celebrates diversity and inclusion, where women feel valued, respected, and supported.

Training on unconscious bias for leaders and employees can help to highlight some of the barriers women face in the workplace and place inclusion at the forefront.

How Can You Help Accelerate Action?

As individuals, we can all take steps in our daily lives to positively impact and encourage women’s advancement in our workplace, environment, societies and countries.

We can call out stereotypes, challenge discrimination, question bias, celebrate women’s success, and so much more. Most importantly, sharing our knowledge and encouragement with others is key.

Impactful organizations and groups across the world deliver an array of effective strategies, resources, and activities that help #Accelerate Action in many areas, including:

Forging women’s economic empowerment
Recruiting, retaining and developing diverse talent
Supporting women and girls into leadership, decision-making, business and STEM
Designing and building infrastructure meeting the needs of women and girls
Helping women and girls make informed decisions about their health
Involving women and girls in sustainable agriculture and food security
Providing women and girls with access to quality education and training
Elevating women and girls’ participation and achievement in sport
Promoting the creative and artistic talent of women and girls
Addressing further areas supporting the advancement of women and girls

Relevant Hashtags For IWD’s 2025

Join the global conversation, share empowering stories, and uplift the spirit of International Women’s Day using these hashtags:

#InternationalWomensDay2025
# 2025 IWD
#ChooseToChallenge
#WomensRights
#GenderEquality
#InternationalWomensDay
#WomensDay
#WomenEmpowerment
#GirlPower
#Feminism
#WomenSupportingWomen
#WomenInLeadership
#WomenInSTEM
#GenderEquality
#HeForShe
#EmpowerHer
#BalanceForBetter
#EachforEqual
#ChooseToChallenge
#ChallengeAccepted
#WomenInBusiness
#WomenInTech
#WomenWhoLead
#InspiringWomen
#WomenEntrepreneurs
#StrongWomen
#WomenWithPurpose
#IWD
#AccelerateAction

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2025 IWD Theme: ‘Accelerate Action’ Toward Gender Equality