Vladimir Lenin declared March 8th as IWD in 1922 to honour the women's role in 1917 Russian Revolution;[9] it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and communist countries.

[17] Inspired in part by the American socialists, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede, and others proposed the establishment of an annual "Women's Day", although no date was specified.

[20][21] Concurrently, there was a march in London in support of women's suffrage, during which Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.

[22] On March 8, 1917, in Petrograd (February 23, 1917, on the Julian calendar), women textile workers began a demonstration that eventually engulfed the whole city, demanding "Bread and Peace"—an end to World War I, to food shortages, and to Tsarism.

But in the morning, despite the orders to the contrary, textile workers left their work in several factories and sent delegates to ask for the support of the strike… which led to mass strike... all went out into the streets.

[12] After the Russian Revolution, Bolsheviks began to celebrate the International Women's Day on 8 March as it marked the beginning of revolutionary changes in 1917 in Russia.

[26] After the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the State Council proclaimed on December 23 that March 8 would be made an official holiday, with women given a half-day off.

[27] Hujum (Russian: Худжум, romanized: Khudzhum, IPA: [xʊd͡ʐʐʊm]; in Turkic languages, storming or assault, from Arabic: هجوم) was a series of policies and actions taken by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, initiated by Joseph Stalin on International Women's Day in 1927, to remove all manifestations of gender inequality, especially the systems of female veiling and seclusion practiced in Central Asia.

[28][29] On May 8, 1965, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued a decree to make March 8, International Women's Day, a non-working public holiday 'in honor of the outstanding achievements of the Soviet women in building communism, defending the motherland during the Great Patriotic War, their heroism and selflessness both at the front and at home, and for their great contribution to the strengthening of friendship among peoples, and to the struggle for peace'.

[47] On March 8, 1984 in Argentina, the first International Women's Day demonstrations since the end of the country's military regime took place in the Congressional Plaza, in what is now considered a landmark.

[48] An emblematic moment of the protests was when activist María Elena Oddone climbed up the stairs of the Monument of the Two Congresses and raised a banner that read "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure".

Elena Tchalidy, president of the Alicia Moreau de Justo Foundation, said: "March 8 was the first public act and she walked with [that sign].

'[48] Oddone recalled the meeting with the Multisectorial de la Mujer that took place two days after the event in her autobiography, claiming she replied to their "lapidary critics": "I am not a feminist to please anyone but to tell the truth about our condition.

By the twenty-first century, IWD had been criticized as heavily diluted and commercialized, particularly in the West, where it is sponsored by major corporations and used to promote general and vague notions of equality, rather than radical social reforms.

[98] Governments and activists around the world commemorated the 20th anniversary year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, an historic roadmap that set the agenda for realizing women's rights.

The renaming ceremony took place on International Women's Day in 2015 and was conducted by the President of Serbia Tomislav Nikolic and then UK Ambassador Denis Keefe.

With men still in leadership positions and a widening economic gender gap, he called for change "by empowering women at all levels, enabling their voices to be heard and giving them control over their own lives and over the future of our world".

[139][140] This prompted a mild backlash, with some arguing that the move was hypocritical due to the chain's underpaying of employees, and others observing that the "M" in the logo could just as easily stand for "men" as it could for "McDonald's".

[143][144][145][146] The federal state of Berlin marked International Women's Day as a public holiday for the first time in 2019, with parliament having approved that in January of that year.

[156] Protestors took to the streets to demand that the government put a stop to systematic violence against women and pass the sexual assault eradication bill.

[192]These protests extended to embassies as well as monuments, and took place across 94 Russian and international cities,[193] including Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kanash, Yaroslavl, Syktyvkar, Smolensk, Luga, Lytkarino, Izhevsk, Volgograd, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, Omsk, Mytishchi, Gelendzhik, Perm, Kazan, Zelenograd, Balashov, Saratov, Biysk, Khimki, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Novovoronezh, Vologda, Korolev, Troitsk, Serpukhov, Vladimir, Revda, Tolyatti, Kaliningrad, Naberezhnye Chelny, Volgodonsk, Ramenskoye, Samara, Leninavan farm, Stavropol, Arkhangelsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Krasnogorsk, Novokuibyshevsk, Zheleznovodsk, Murom, Snegiri, Nakhabino, Rostov-on-Don, Cheboksary, Saransk, Dzerzhinsky, Veliky Novgorod, Tyumen, Tobolsk, Podolsk, Tula, Grebnevo village, Dolgoprudny, Murino, Vladikavkaz and Alagir.

[200] In the capital of Kosovo, hundreds of ethnically Albanian women threw smoke bombs at the headquarters of the police while protesting domestic violence.

[204][205] Six couples recognized International Women's Day by suing the government of Japan for the right of a wife and husband to have different last names.

[203][206] In Pakistan, there were rallies in major cities to bring attention to debt bondage, the scarcity of women in Parliament, and street harassment.

[203] IWD is an official holiday in many countries worldwide, including Afghanistan,[207] Angola, Armenia,[208] Azerbaijan,[209][210] Belarus,[211] Burkina Faso,[212] Cambodia,[213] China (for women only),[214] Cuba,[215] Georgia,[216] Germany (Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania only),[217] Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan,[218] Kyrgyzstan,[219] Laos,[220] Madagascar (for women only),[221] Moldova,[222] Mongolia,[223] Montenegro, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine,[224] Uzbekistan,[225] and Zambia.

[226] In some countries, such as Australia,[227] Cameroon,[228] Croatia,[229] Romania,[230] Bosnia and Herzegovina,[231] Bulgaria,[232] Vietnam,[233] Chile,[234] and Ghana,[235] IWD is not an official public holiday, but is widely observed, nonetheless.

Several countries, including Algeria, France, Italy, Spain, and Uruguay, have squares or other public spaces named after 8 March in reference to International Women's Day.

[244] Mattei felt that the French symbols of IWD, violets and lilies of the valley, were too scarce and expensive to be used in poor, rural Italian areas, so she proposed the mimosa as an alternative.

[251][252] The Aurat March is now an annual socio-political demonstration in Pakistani cities such as Lahore, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Faisalabad, Multan, Quetta, Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar to observe International Women's Day.

[256] Shadi Sadr, Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh and several more community activists were released on March 19, 2007, ending a fifteen-day hunger strike.