International Women’s Day — An annual celebration of women around the world

Why do we celebrate International Women’s Day?

International Women’s Day (IWD) is an annual, global event celebrating women’s achievements around the world. It’s also an important day to draw attention to issues relating to women such as women’s health, education, childcare etc.

IWD aims to build support for women's rights and participation in political and economic arenas.  

The history of International Women’s Day 

International Women’s Day was officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977. It began due to labor movement activities at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. In 1908, for example, 15,000 women marched through New York demanding shorter working hours, better pay, and the right to vote. A year later, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman's Day.   

After World War II, March 8 started to be celebrated in a number of countries. In 1975, during the International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating March 8 as International Women's Day. Today, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” is entrenched in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

If you’d like to find out more about the rise of international Women’s Day around the world, visit https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day/background 

What is the theme for IWD 2023? 

Every year the United Nations chooses a new focus for IWD. For 2023, it is the digital gender gap or “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality — Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.   

Discover more about the gender digital divide here.

Gender digital divide facts 

• 69% of men globally use the Internet, compared to 63% of women. This means there were 259 million more men than women using the Internet in 2022. 
  
  
• Women make up about half of the world’s population, however, they outnumber men by 18% as non-users of the Internet. Up from 11% in 2019. 

Read some of the incredible stories about innovative women around the world: https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day/stories

Embrace Equality  

Some organizations run their own campaigns for IWD, such as https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ who are celebrating IWD 2023 with #embrace equity — “Our IWD 2023's campaign theme aims to get the world talking about why "equal opportunities are no longer enough." Read more here.

Harklinikken wants to empower women to look and feel their best every day  

“When I founded Harklinikken back in 1992, I felt that all communication about hair loss was directed towards men. Female hair thinning was a completely underserved category, and it was misunderstood with regards to how it affects women when they’re losing thair hair, both physically and emotionally. Nobody seemed to know how you communicate to and with women about this issue.

I knew I needed to formulate truly effective solutions and create a place where women could come to receive help, share their hair stories, and start their journey towards fuller, thicker, healthier hair. Today, 80 % of our clients are women, and we strive every day to help them to look and feel their best”. 

— Lars Skjøth, Harklinikken Founder and Lead Researcher.  

Just as hair is more than hair, International Women’s Day is more than just a day — we want to continuously celebrate women and all they achieve and  aspire to be! Our incredible clients and Ambassadors are testimony to the power and inspiration of women all around the world! Harklinikken. More than hair.