Never backing down: Women march forward for equal rights
For centuries, women have fought for equal rights, opportunities, and freedom. From the suffragists to digital activists, each generation has pushed boundaries, shattered barriers, and refused to step back. Behind every policy change and legal victory there have been fearless feminists organizing, protesting, and demanding action.
The world today is more equal for women and girls than ever before — but progress is still too slow, too fragile, and too uneven. Every 10 minutes, a woman is murdered by someone in her own family. Women's representation in the labour force has remained unchanged for decades. Women and girls contribute the least to climate change and yet suffer the worst consequences. And at this pace, a girl born today will be 40 years old before women hold as many seats in parliament as men.
In 1995, world leaders committed to gender equality with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a groundbreaking plan that set bold goals for women’s rights. Two decades later, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reinforced that commitment with a looming 2030 deadline.
We cannot afford any setbacks. We cannot wait another 30 years to fulfil the pledge for equality. On 8 March, International Women’s Day, we march forward for ALL women and girls.
At the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott demand civil, social, and political rights for women. It’s a gender equality milestone when they declare: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”
Photo: Seneca Falls, National Park Service.
Sojourner Truth, a formerly enslaved woman, delivers her powerful speech “Ain't I a Woman?”. She goes down in history by testifying firsthand to how women may experience gender discrimination differently.
Portrait of Sojourner Truth, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights advocate.
New Zealand becomes the first country to grant women the right to vote. It inspires a global suffrage movement advancing women’s rights and paving the way for more just and democratic societies for everyone.
Photo: Woman about to cast her electoral vote for the first time, 4 December 1935. Photographer unidentified.
On 8 March, across Europe, over 1 million people mark the first International Women’s Day by protesting for women’s suffrage and labour rights.
Photo: Women's demonstration for bread and peace, 8 March, 1917, Petrograd, Russia. Wikimedia Commons.
Thousands of Igbo women rise up against colonial rule by singing, dancing, banging on their walls and even tearing down roofs. Their actions force authorities to end unfair market taxes.
Photo: Oloko women behind the Aba Women's Riot of 1929, Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. Caption information courtesy of Bolakoka Ventures.
Tired of unhealthy work conditions, low wages and limited leave, around 1,500 unionized laundresses go on strike. Commercial laundries get hit, and the strike ends in victory for all Irish workers, who gain a statutory second week of annual holidays.
Photo: Laundry at Waterford Infirmary for E.S.B., Ireland, 5 June 1939. National Library of Ireland.
During the founding of the United Nations after World War II, women delegates push to enshrine gender equality in the founding Charter, which recognizes the “equal rights of men and women”.
At the inaugural session of the UN General Assembly, Eleanor Roosevelt famously reads an “open letter to the women of the world”, urging increased involvement of women in national and international affairs.
One of the first steps of the new United Nations is to form the Commission on the Status of Women. The first global intergovernmental body entirely dedicated to gender equality, it still shapes women’s rights policies today.
Photo: Bertha Lutz at the San Francisco Conference, 25 April - 26 June 1945. UN.
The declaration famously states that fundamental rights belong to everyone—including all women and girls. It marks the beginning of activism calling upon duty bearers for upholding agreed human rights standards and ending all forms of discrimination.
Photo: A group of Japanese women looking at a Universal Declaration of Human Rights poster during their visit at U.N United Nations, Lake Success, New York. UN.
Three sisters — Minerva, María Teresa and Patria Mirabal — also known as las mariposas (the butterflies) lead an underground resistance against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Their assassination prompts public outcry, and the dictatorship falls within a year.
Photo: Mirabal sisters: Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria. Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal.
Held in Mexico, the conference is a galvanizing moment, linking women’s movements from around the world and ramping up global discourse on women’s rights. 1970 also marks the first International Women’s Year and the first UN Decade for Women.
Feminists launch the International Wages for Housework campaign, pushing for recognition of women’s unpaid care work. Activists argue that women’s domestic and care work should be rewarded like any other job – with a paid salary.
Photo: Betsy Warrior, 1972. Library of Congress.
When 90 per cent of women refuse to work, cook or care for children for a day, the country comes to a halt. Major reforms ensue, including paid parental leave and increased women’s political participation.
Photo: Women’s Day Off, 24 October 1975, Iceland. Reykjavík Museum of Photography.
Pushed by the increasingly global women’s movement, the United Nations General Assembly established the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Countries that ratify it – 189 so far – are legally bound to end discrimination against women in public and private life, including through domestic laws.
Honouring the Mirabal sisters, activists from Latin America and the Caribbean declare 25 November a day to call for ending violence against women. In 1999, the United Nations formally designates it as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
What starts as a grassroots initiative in 1991 is now one of the most widespread campaigns. Launched by the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, 16 Days is observed every year, in every corner of the world, from 25 November to 10 December.
Photo collage: Orange The World 2014-present. UN Women.
Feminist activists successfully press for governments to agree to end coercive population targets, such as sterilizations and restrictive birth quotas, at the International Conference on Population and Development. Its historic recognition of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights remains a touchstone today.
Photo: President Hosni Mubarak (left) of Egypt addresses the ICPD conference on 9 May 1994 in Cairo, Egypt. UN.
The Fourth World Conference on Women produces the most ambitious blueprint ever to achieve the equal rights of ALL women and girls, outlining twelve critical areas for action.
For the first time, in resolution 1325, the United Nations formally recognizes that war impacts women differently. It calls for women’s meaningful participation and leadership in peace and security efforts.
Liberian women refuse to endure another moment of a 14-year civil war. They use sex strikes and sit-ins to press for successful peace talks. Not only does the war end but Liberia elects Africa’s first woman Head of State, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Photo: Protesters march in Liberia against gender based violence. UN/Eric Kanalstein.
UN Women’s creation from four separate UN bodies gives the United Nations a strong, unified voice for ALL women and girls. UN Women advances international standards, coordinates with the entire United Nations system on gender equality and takes actions transforming the lives of women and girls everywhere.
Photo: Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet during the UN Women Launch Celebration held in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters on 24 February 2011. UN/Paulo Filgueiras.
After surviving a brutal attack in Pakistan, schoolgirl and education activist Malala Yousafzai marks her 16th birthday by bringing her passion for education for all to her first public appearance at the United Nations.
World leaders agree on a plan for global progress through 2030: the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The fifth goal is to achieve gender equality, which also underpins the success of all the others – from the economy to food security, health, climate action, peace and more.
Women around the world take to social media and then the courts to expose patterns of abuse across industries and sectors and demand accountability. Numerous mass uprisings protest the gang rape of a student in India, femicides across Latin America, and the kidnapping of almost 280 schoolgirls in Nigeria, among others.
Photo: Women's March New York views on 42nd St. 21 January 2017. UN Women/Ryan Brown.
The US National Soccer Team finally secures pay parity after a long legal battle, adding to a series of moves to rectify pay disparities in sports globally. Until today, they remain one of the few exceptions. Out of the 100 highest paid athletes in the world in 2024, none are women.
Photo: Girls' football teams in Gaziantep, Turkey played for solidarity against gender-based violence. UN Women.
Excitement about the potential of AI is overshadowed by its gender biases. AI experts and human rights leaders begin urging greater awareness and action to counter bias so that technologies benefit all and do not perpetuate gender discrimination and violence.
Photo: Woman using virtual reality sets in Bangkok, Thailand, 02 April 2022. UN Women/Ana Norman Bermudez.
When Dominique Pelicot from France is convicted of drugging and raping his wife over nine years, Gisele Pelicot makes history by refusing anonymity. “It is not bravery,” she says, “It is will and determination to change society.” Her boldness sparks a global call to shift the shame from survivors to perpetrators. In 2025, France would adopt a landmark consent-based rape law.
Photo: Gisele Pelicot. Clement Mahoudeau/AFP via Getty Images.
Thousands of protesters converged in Johannesburg, South Africa ahead of the G20 Summit, singing songs and marking a powerful moment of silence to put the global spotlight on the global femicide crisis. In response to public outcry, including 1 million petition signatures, the government declared gender-based violence a national disaster.
Photo: Protesters observe 15 minutes of silence, lying on the ground to honour the 15 women killed daily in South Africa. UN Women/Maphuti Mahlaba
As women’s rights organizations sound the alarm over the new frontiers of technology-facilitated violence – including AI-generated deepfakes, cyberstalking, and grooming – some countries are shifting away from a reliance on self-regulation, and towards accountability and legal frameworks. From Mexico to Moldova, lawmakers are criminalizing digital violence and expanding access to justice.
Photo: Iuliana Tabacaru, advocate for the rights of women with disabilities in Moldova. UN Women/Gheorghe Văsluian
