International Women’s Day (IWD) is a century-old celebration to appreciate women around the world. March 8 is a day to recognize women’s struggle for equality as well as their social, cultural, and political achievements. No one group is responsible for International Women’s Day; many charities, corporations, and organizations come together to encourage the day of celebration, usually surrounding a specific theme. This year, the theme is “Each for Equal,” put together by organizations and partners like Amazon and Avon. The celebration has gotten bigger every year promoting their ideas of unity and action. People come together to stand wearing the international color of women: purple.

Women’s equality has a deep history and today we see a significant change from those times long ago. “I guess that we have that day because, a while ago, women weren’t as important,” said Carissa Medrano. “It was mostly about men. It’s good to have that day to see how far they’ve come.”

Younger generations are paying attention and are contributing their voice for equality. Although things have gotten better, we cannot neglect what change there still needs to be done. An article from www.theledger.com states that “the unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.” Jamie Silva said, “Women are important in our society. They have gone through pains that no other man has gone through, so it would be great for us to treat them equally for all the work they do.”

To find out more about International Women’s day and how to participate go to www.internationalwomensday.com.