International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 every year as a way to remind people of the importance of women, and to bring awareness to the way that women around the world continue to struggle for equal rights and fair treatment.

The very first Women's Day was held on February, 28, 1909 in New York City, as a remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The strike had been to protest dangerous working conditions and the low pay the women earned. In 1910, delegates from women's organisations in several countries met and suggested a yearly Women's Day to promote the struggle for women's suffrage (the right to vote). In 1911, more than one million people around the world celebrated the first Women's Day on March 19, with parades and demonstrations, even though it was not yet an official holiday. Less than one week later, the famous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire occurred in New York. This was when more than 140 women were killed in a fire in a clothing factory that had blocked up the exits to keep the women from taking breaks. The fire brought attention to the need for better working conditions for women, and this was a theme of women's days in the following years.

In 1914, in London, suffragettes held a march on March 8, demanding the right to vote. The march was led by the famous suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, who was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square. Her arrest drew even more attention to women's demand to vote. (Women over 30 first earned the right to vote on Feb 6, 1918.)

In 1917, Women's Day played a part in the Russian Revolution. That year, on March 8 (February 23rd on the Russian calendar), Russian women began a strike to call for an end to World War I, an end to food shortages, and fan end to rule by a Tsar (a monarch) After four days, tens of millions of people had joined the women on strike, and the Tsar was forced to leave. The new government gave women the right to vote, and made Women's Day a national holiday in the Soviet Union. Soon other countries followed in making Women's Day a national holiday.

Over the next years and decades, women around the world continued to demand and be given greater rights, including the right to vote. They also continued to celebrate Women's Day, and use it to bring attention to the fact that in most places women still did not have equal rights, and did not earn the same pay as men who did the same jobs.

In 1975, the United Nations declared March 8 to be International Women's Day – a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace. In 1996, the UN began to give a different theme to Women's Day each year. The first theme for International Women's Day was “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future”.

On International Women's Day, many people wear purple ribbons. Purple was one of the colours worn by the suffragettes – it stands for freedom and dignity. Others wear white, another of the colours worn by suffragettes, and which stands for purity. Today, International Women’s Day is celebrated across the world. It is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past, present and future. It is a time for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and for looking ahead to the new opportunities that await future generations of women.