International Women’s Day is a celebration and a call to action. Here are things to know

Women's right activists take part in a rally to mark International Women's Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)

Women across the world called for equal pay, reproductive rights, education, justice and decision-making jobs and celebrate progress toward female empowerment during events and demonstrations marking International Women’s Day on Sunday.

Officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977, International Women’s Day is commemorated in different ways and to varying degrees in places around the world. Protests are often political -- and at times violent -- rooted in women’s efforts to improve their rights as workers.

2026 marked the 115th year of International Women’s Day. This years’ theme was “Give to Gain,” with a focus on fundraising for organizations focused on women’s issues and less tangible forms of giving such as teaching peers, celebrating women and “challenging discrimination.”

Women’s rights activists shouted slogans during a protest in Istanbul, Turkey. In China and Russia, vendors sold flowers wrapped in pink and local workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, lifted fists and umbrellas as they celebrated.

What is International Women’s Day?

International Women’s Day is a celebration -- and a call to action -- marked by demonstrations, mostly of women, around the world, ranging from combative protests to charity runs. Some celebrate the economic, social and political achievements of women, while others urge governments to guarantee equal pay, access to health care, justice for victims of gender-based violence and education for girls.

It is an official holiday in more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ukraine, Russia and Cuba, the only one in the Americas. In the United States, March is celebrated as Women’s History Month.

When did it start and why does it fall on March 8?

While the idea behind a women’s day originated in the U.S. with the American Socialist Party in 1909, it was a German feminist who pushed for a global commemoration during an international conference of socialist women held in 1910 in Copenhagen. The following year, events across Europe marked the day, and during World War I, women used it to protest the armed conflict, which lasted from 1914 to 1918.

International Women’s Day is observed on March 8 after a massive protest in Russia on Feb. 23, 1917, that led to the country’s eventual withdrawal from the war. At the time, Russia had not adopted the Gregorian calendar and still used the Julian calendar.

The U.N. began commemorating the holiday in 1975, which was International Women’s Year, and its General Assembly officially recognized the day two years later.

How is it being observed in places across the world?

Roughly 20,000 people attended a march for International Women’s Day in Berlin. German news agency dpa reported Sunday that the crowd was double the amount police had expected. Speakers at the event decried violence against women in Germany, as well as gender discrimination.

In Brazil, Sunday’s marches for International Women’s Day served as a rallying cry against gender-based violence, fueled by the latest case to outrage the country involving the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in Copacabana.

The case in Rio de Janeiro’s famed, beachside neighborhood took place in January, but gained national traction this week when four suspects handed themselves over to authorities. At least 15 protests were planned across the country, with organizers calling for the defense of women’s lives and an end to femicide.

In Chile, tens of thousands of women marched in Santiago and other cities to demand women’s rights, an event that has taken on special significance this year in the lead-up to the inauguration of far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast, who will assume the presidency Wednesday in what will represent the country’s most pronounced shift to the right since the end of a military dictatorship.

“With Kast taking office in three days and with everything that is happening internationally, the Yankee offensive against the peoples of Latin America, we feel that this year’s march shouldn’t be just another one,” Yamila Martinez, a 31-year-old warehouse worker, told The Associated Press.

In Spain, tens of thousands of women took to the streets in Spain’s major cities, calling for equality and an end to violence against women as well as calls for an end to war in the Middle East and in support of oppressed women in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“Our struggle is together with the women, both Iranian and Afghan. In this struggle, we are together. And we will fight for our rights, and they also need to know that we support them from Afghanistan,” said Khadija Amin, an Afghan journalist, said at a march in Madrid.

Palestinian women in Gaza City reminisced about their lives before the war. The majority of them live starkly different lives -- in tents that do little to protect them from winter rains and the scorching summer heat, and they spend hours every day in pursuit of basic necessities.

We woke up at six to wait for the water trucks. We go to the charity kitchen and wait in line,” said Wisal Badawi, as she was joined by other women carrying jerrycans and empty pots and waiting for food and water. “The Palestinian woman is suffering.”

In Puyo, an Amazonian town in Ecuador, a march took place with members of various Indigenous groups, many wearing traditional clothes. Women said they were there to raise their voices about the degradation of the environment, and oil and gas expansion.

“Today is about reporting to the world about the violation of rights that us Indigenous women have to endure -- specifically the rights to nature,” said Ruth Penafiel, 59, from the Kichwa community in the northern Amazon. “We want to live in a healthy environment and in harmony with the forest, so we are asking for respect and that public policies for nature are put in place.”

And in Peru, a 5-kilometer race in Lima drew some 7,500 participants to commemorate the day, while in the southern city of Cusco, banners were raised and drums resounded in a march with messages defending women’s lives. “Today I raise my voice so that tomorrow no one is missing,” one banner read.

Pakistan briefly detains several activists

Police in Pakistan’s capital briefly detained several women’s rights activists when they attempted to hold a rally in defiance of a government ban on public gatherings, officials and witnesses said. The detainees were later released.

Pakistan had imposed the ban on rallies over security reasons amid a surge in militant violence in the country. Organizers shared videos on social media showing some of the activists sitting inside a police vehicle in Islamabad.

In a statement, Aurat March, a network of women’s rights activists, said the participants had been peacefully exercising their right to protest. “We strongly condemn the arrests of Aurat March participants and organizers.”

Advocates for women protest Epstein in New Mexico

Advocates organized by Women’s March will rally outside of Zorro Ranch in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sunday, where financier Jeffrey Epstein allegedly sexually abused and trafficked underage girls and young women.

Relatives of Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by Epstein, will speak at the event alongside other activists.

“This weekend, we are taking action because the same systems that shield powerful abusers at home are the ones perpetuating violence abroad,” Rachel O’Leary Carmona, Executive Director of Women’s March, said in a statement. “The years-long cover-up and protection of Jeffrey Epstein’s allies and co-conspirators exposed a culture of impunity that tells survivors their pain is negotiable when powerful men are involved.”

What does the future hold for March 8?

Some say commemorating International Women’s Day is now more important than ever, as women have lost gains made in the last century, among them the 2022 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a nationwide right to abortion, which ended constitutional protections that had been in place nearly 50 years.

The Associated Press