International women’s day takes place on March 8th every year to celebrate women’s rights and inspire people to act in the ongoing fight for gender equality. The theme for this year is #EachforEqual which is to remind everyone that it’s on each and every individual to help create a gender-equal world. History cites the origins of international women’s day in the year 1909 in America, but the fight began a year earlier when the Socialist Party of America celebrated 15,000 women who protested long work hours, low pay, and the lack of voting rights in New York City. So originally it was called National women’s day until the year 1911 when it was celebrated globally.
Today women are still banding together to make their voices heard but using the online medium as a platform to reach a wider audience at a quicker pace. On account of international women’s day, Facebook highlights the key moments where women used the platform to begin a movement.
Women’s March
On January 21st, the Women’s March in DC brought over 500,000 people together both online and offline, making it the largest Facebook event for a single cause in 2017. The event sparked more than 15,000 other local events to be created in different cities across the globe, bringing millions of people together from over 100 different countries for one of the largest global movements in recent history.
#MeToo
On October 15, 2017, in less than 24 hours, the #MeToo movement began with more than 12 million posts, comments and reactions on Facebook, as women bravely shared their stories about harassment and sexual assault.
Escape the Corset
The South Korean ‘Escape the Corset’ movement was made to rebuke rigid beauty standards and find support from groups like Heavytalker on Instagram and Facebook.
Surviving Hijab
Egyptian marathon runner, Manal Rostom wanted to smash stereotypes around hijab-wearing women and give them the power to wear their hijabs with pride. So she created a closed, women’s only community on Facebook called Surviving Hijab, which now has more than 75,000 members.
#BodyPositivity
People have advanced the conversation about #bodypositivity by sharing more than 4 million posts across Instagram with the same hashtag. Women like Tess Holliday are among those leading the way.
