Women’s Day events highlight gaps in gender equality

Demonstrations, conferences and artistic events around the world Wednesday marked International Women’s Day, an annual observance established to recognize women and to demand equality for half of the planet’s population.

While activists in some parts of the planet noted advances, repression in countries such as Afghanistan and Iran — and the large numbers of women and girls who experience sexual assaults and domestic violence worldwide — highlighted the ongoing struggle to secure women’s rights.

United Nations Secretary-general Antonio Guterres noted this week that women’s rights were “abused, threatened and violated” around the world and gender equality won’t be achieved for 300 years given the current pace of change.

Even in countries that have pioneered advances for women, there have been recent setbacks for the feminist cause: This is the first International Women’s Day since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion last year and many states adopted restrictions on abortion.

The United Nations recognized

International Women’s Day in 1977, but the occasion has its roots in labor movements of the early 20th century. The day is commemorated in different ways and to varying degrees in different countries.

The United Nations identified Afghanistan as the most repressive country in the world for women and girls since the Taliban takeover in 2021. They have banned girls’ education beyond sixth grade and barred women from public spaces such as parks and gyms. Women must cover themselves from head to toe and are also barred from working at national and international nongovernmental organizations.

Although Spain has for years produced one of the world’s biggest turnouts on March 8, this year’s marches are marked by a division within its own left-wing government over a sexual liberty law that has inadvertently led to the reduction of sentences for hundreds of sexual offenders.

Elsewhere in Europe, tens of thousands of people marched in Paris and other French cities, brandishing posters with the messages “Equal Pay, Now” and “Solidarity with the world’s women.” The rallies focused on protesting proposed changes to the pension system, which women’s group say are unfair to working mothers.

MARKUS SCHREIBER/ASSOCIATED PRESS Protesters attend a rally Wednesday in Berlin, Germany, in support of the women of Iran and Afghanistan on International Women’s Day.