A day of their own.
Women around the globe marked International Women’s Day on Friday, taking part in strikes, marches and demonstrations that underscored efforts to combat discrimination and accelerate the drive for gender parity.
The event, first celebrated in 1911, traces its roots to the early struggles for equal pay and votes for women.
In Paris, supporters attended a ceremony formally enshrining a woman’s right to abortion in the French constitution. The initiative was overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers earlier this week, even as the U.S. and other countries restrict access to abortion.
In Lebanon, one demonstrator brandished a handmade sign linking the struggle for equal rights to the war in Gaza, where Palestinian health officials say an estimated 9,000 women have been killed in five months of fighting.
And in Brazil, protesters highlighted the increasing number of women who are being killed because of their gender, a crime known as “femicide.”
The story of progress and continued struggle was summed up by a banner unfurled on the streets of Pamplona, in northern Spain. “So much has been achieved,” it said. “There is so much to achieve.”