International Women’s Day falls on 8 March every year and is a day dedicated to “celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women” internationally. It also acts as a reminder about the importance of gender equality.
It originally came about following the suffragette movement, and the first Women’s Day was celebrated on 19 March 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The movement gradually grew and International Women’s Day was finally recognised by the UN in 1975.
In 1996, they introduced unique themes for each year, starting with ‘celebrating the past, planning for the future’. The 2026 theme is ‘give to gain’, to encourage the message of reciprocity and support.
Businesses all over the world celebrate International Women’s Day every year with merchandise, markets, talks, parades, and exhibitions. But do these events actually make a difference, or have they instead become token of feminism?
I spoke to Dr Stacy Gillis, senior lecturer at Newcastle University, and head of its gender research programme, to find out if International Women’s Day does actually make a difference politically.
Gillis stated that she believes that International Women’s Day has been “mobilised by corporations” in a form of token feminism. They present a united front with the movement, whilst doing very little behind the scenes to actually support equality and inclusion.
We are often told nowadays that feminism has become unnecessary in the modern world, and that equality has now been achieved, however there is much to suggest that this is still not the case.
Statistics show that the gender pay gap, although minimised, still exists today in the UK. Looking more globally, a 2023 survey states that there are only 14 countries in the world that have full equal rights for men and women. It takes into account laws surrounding marriage, wages, childcare, asset management and many more factors.
This highlights the fact that despite much improvement in women’s rights since International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911, there is still a long way to go.
The token support of businesses around IWD minimises the real struggles that women face in the world today, in a time when we arguably need feminism more than ever. Gillis and I discussed the ever present rise of alt-right political content online, and the way in which it is threatening women.
Recent political shifts have seen campaigns online that seem to be pushing women back to their traditional gender roles. So called ‘trad wife’ influencers promote the idea that conforming to traditional gender roles is actually empowering for women, and that they need to embrace their ‘feminine side’ more.
Gillis concludes that this new shift is a result of the growing independence of women, and their newfound freedom over recent years. The women of today are the first few generations that have not had to rely on men for financial security, and therefore men have been decentred in women’s lives. More extreme right wing shifts online may be an attempt from the patriarchy to claim back this space that they once held in women’s lives.
Recently Louis Theroux’s ‘Manosphere’ documentary went viral for its exposure of the online network of men whose content seeks to promote misogynistic views amongst other men. This content ranges from podcasts, videos, forums and websites, but the commonality is the idea that men need to reclaim their power back from the women who have allegedly taken it from them. As well as sexism, the men often also share racist, homophobic, and transphobic opinions.
However, as Gillis points out, “feminism is not about saying that women are better than men, feminism is about prioritising equal treatment for men and women”. This illustrates the fact that these men’s fear of women having power over them is totally irrational, as that is never something that feminists have wanted, they have only ever asked for equality. Also, referring back to the statists, it is evident that even equality has not yet been achieved.
Therefore, we can see that feminism is still needed in the world today, and the co-option of International Women’s Day by businesses and organisations isn’t helpful to this. Gillis believes that the way to fix this is that “corporations need to have a clear commitment to EDI and be held accountable for that commitment”.
However, that is not to say that IWD does nothing for women’s rights. The IWD website has dozens of educational resources, as well as acting as a platform for charities to promote themselves, and for people to donate. At its core, it is an organization dedicated to helping women and girls all around the world.
The commodification of International Women’s Day is an issue that minimises women’s struggles by showing false or shallow advocacy for them, however the day as a whole is still incredibly important, it just perhaps need to be taken more seriously by the rest of the world.