CELEBRATION IWD

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

ONE STOP ENGLISH
by Karen Richardson

In this lesson, available at two levels, students read a text about International Women’s Day, and write a short text about a female role model.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated globally on 8 March each year.
Each year IWD focuses on a particular campaign theme. The theme for International Women’s Day 2020 is #EachforEqual because “an equal world is an enabled world.” The official IWD website* tells us that “Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day,” and that “we can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements”. We are further asked to remember that, “each one of us can help create a gender equal world.”
IWD celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women everywhere. It came into being well over a century ago, with the first official IWD gathering on 8 March, 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job. It was implemented as a continuation of the movement started by the Socialist Party of America, suffragettes and other campaigners for women’s equality.
The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day in 1975. The empowerment of women continues to be a central feature of the UN’s efforts to address social, economic and political challenges across the globe.
In 2019, Berlin, the capital of Germany, made International Women’s Day a public holiday for the very first time.
These days, in addition to the huge variety of professionally organised International Women’s Day events such as concerts and conferences, many local groups run their own. Organisers of IWD events, be they schools, hospitals, libraries, or community groups, can order packs containing posters, selfie signs, balloons, stickers, ribbons, bunting, pens, wristbands, and the like, to help them advertise and decorate their events and tell the world why they are coming together and making the effort to celebrate women.
Regardless of their size, the aim of IWD events both large and small is to raise awareness, celebrate achievement and to bring about change that will lead to a more gender-equal world.
Let’s all be #EachforEqual.
Note: International Men’s Day is celebrated separately on 19 November each year.

* Source: www.internationalwomensday.com

• CLICK HERE to download the intermediate level worksheet.
• CLICK HERE to download the upper-intermediate to advanced level worksheet.

Adapted from: https://www.onestopenglish.com/international-womens-day/558174.article. Accessed on March 8, 2022. One Stop English is a teacher resource site, part of Macmillan Education, one of the world’s leading publishers of English language teaching materials. © Macmillan Education Limited 2022. All rights reserved.