PORT LOKO, Sierra Leone - Fatmata Sesay was 15 years old when she became pregnant. Her parents forced her to move in with her boyfriend, who was neither in school nor employed. Moving in with him felt like an underage marriage, she says.    More

Abuja, 13 March 2019 - "In Northern Nigeria where I work as a nurse and polio vaccinator, only women are allowed to enter houses because most women in this part of the country are in purdah (practice of seclusion)", says Ramatu Garba of Dala Local Government in Kano State.    More

A wheelchair-bound Pakistani mother who yearned to visit a park without worrying about ramp access, and a young South Sudanese woman who dreams of having affordable health care, were among the speakers opening the United Nation's largest annual gathering on gender equality and women's rights on Monday.    More

UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the event by enumerating some of the world's collective challenges, "from climate change...to the weakening of commitment to multilateralism," stressing that "gender equality and women's rights are fundamental to addressing each of these". "We can only re-establish trust and rebuild global solidarity by challenging...    More

On International Women's Day, we celebrate all the women who have had a pioneering role in advancing science and health. One of the best known was Florence Nightingale, a 19th- century statistician and founder of modern nursing, who understood the benefits of hygiene and sanitation in preventing disease.    More

GENEVA (8 March 2019) - Women's leadership and equal participation in public affairs is a key element of democracy and a pre-requisite for achieving sustainable development, independent experts from the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (Committee) said today in Geneva in a joint statement with the Inter-Parliamentary...    More

A future of work in which women will no longer lag behind men is within reach, but it will take a quantum leap, not just hesitant incremental steps, to get there, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report published for International Women's Day on 8 March.    More

Think equal, build smart, innovate for change. How women's ideas create a more equitable and just world.    More

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, UN Video is pleased to send you a video message from the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. The video features the Secretary-General; Ms Amina J. Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General; Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director of UN Women; Ms María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the...    More

Women's empowerment and gender equality are "essential to global progress", United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed in his message for International Women's Day which this year puts "innovation by women and girls, for women and girls", at the heart of efforts to achieve gender equality.    More

A teacher holds up a drawing of an adolescent girl who has just been caught unawares by her first menstruation cycle, while at school. She's addressing neat rows of young women sitting in class, in the town of Bol, in Chad.    More

MARADI, Niger - The preacher Malama Ouani may seem like an unlikely advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights. She teaches women about Islam and family welfare during study groups, known as "madrassas," in her conservative community in southern Niger.    More