Published March 08, 2025
By : Staff Writer
The United Nations (UN) commemorated the 50th International Women's Day on March 7, 2025. Two key reports on gender equality were released at the event, examining 30 years of progress and the challenges ahead.
In 1975, thousands of women gathered in Mexico for a conference designated "International Women's Year" by the UN.
The first International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8, and two years later, the UN General Assembly formally adopted a resolution to recognize the observance.
In 2000, a UN Security Resolution established what is now known as the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.
It wasn't until 2010 that the UN General Assembly unanimously voted to create an entity dedicated solely to gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide, which is now called UN Women.
2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, the most comprehensive and visionary agenda for women's rights. This milestone emphasizes the need to dismantle systemic barriers to achieve gender parity.
The global initiative "Ring the Bell for Gender Equality" aligns with the theme of International Women's Day: "For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment."
As we celebrate this International Women's Day, we recognize thirty years of progress and achievements since the landmark United Nations conference in Beijing.
Since then, women and girls have shattered barriers, defied stereotypes, and demanded their rightful place in society. However, challenges such as violence, discrimination, and economic inequality continue to plague communities. Additionally, newer threats, including biased algorithms, are embedding inequalities into online spaces, creating new arenas for harassment and abuse.However, before International Women’s Day in 2020, a new UN Women report warned that progress toward equality was lagging, and hard-fought achievements were at risk.
In line with the 2020 theme, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights,” the report issued a call to action aimed at achieving gender equality and justice for this generation 25 years after the Beijing Platform for Action.
The report highlighted that progress toward gender equality had stalled and that many advancements were being reversed.
Rampant inequality, the climate emergency, conflict, and the alarming rise of exclusionary politics threaten future progress. It emphasized the need for effective action to increase women’s representation in positions of power, warning that the goals of the Beijing Platform for Action will remain unfulfilled if the most marginalized women and girls are not acknowledged and prioritized.
Despite these global challenges, the report showcased successful initiatives to advance women’s rights, such as improving access to childcare, reducing domestic violence, and increasing women’s participation in politics and peacebuilding.
This report was based on the UN Secretary-General’s Report, representing the most comprehensive and inclusive assessment of women’s rights, with contributions from 170 member states.
The findings reveal that there have been notable advancements in women’s and girls’ rights since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action.
More girls are in school than ever before, fewer women are dying in childbirth, and the proportion of women in parliaments worldwide has doubled.
Over the past decade, 131 countries have enacted laws to support women’s equality. However, the pace of progress has been too slow and inconsistent.
Globally, the increase in women’s access to paid work has stagnated over the past 20 years. Less than two-thirds of women (62 percent) aged 25-54 are in the labor force, compared to over 90 percent (93 percent) of men.
Women continue to bear the majority of unpaid care and domestic work and, on average, earn 16 percent less than men—a gap that rises to 35 percent in some countries.
Nearly one in five women (18 percent) have experienced violence from an intimate partner in the past year.
New technologies have also given rise to new forms of violence, such as cyber-harassment, for which effective policy solutions are mainly absent. Furthermore, 32 million girls are still not in school.
The United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2020 brought together the next generations of women and girl leaders, gender equality activists, and women’s rights advocates who were instrumental in establishing the Beijing Platform for Action over two decades ago.
The event celebrated changemakers of all ages and genders and discussed how they can collectively address the unfinished business of empowering all women and girls in the coming years.
📢 Three major events. One urgent conversation.
— UN Women (@UN_Women) February 27, 2025
Two key reports on #GenderEquality + UN commemoration event for #IWD2025.
Join us in examining 30 years of progress—and challenges ahead—#ForAllWomenAndGirls.
Details: https://t.co/n6aUHAelTO#Beijing30 pic.twitter.com/6St4S0PWJM
As we commemorate International Women's Day, follow along the English-language page of @UN_News_Centre, [UN News | Global perspective Human stories], as they live blog the #IWD event at @UN Headquarters today.
— UN GA President (@UN_PGA) March 7, 2025
check this out.https://t.co/oU7VWUrDTu @UN_Women #WomensDay pic.twitter.com/jRGwV45EYD
Fifty years after the UN first marked International Women's Day, look back on how far we've come and how much further we still have to go.
— United Nations Foundation (@unfoundation) March 7, 2025
Read reflections in time for #IWD2025: https://t.co/J5HlYUt9IM pic.twitter.com/AWlaxg8685
