WomenWatch - Information and Resources on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women

International Women's Day Events 2015

Official UN Observance for IWD 2015

Friday 6 March, 9-10 a.m. EST, Trusteeship Council Chamber, UN Secretariat, New York
[webcast].

This event was held as part of the High-level Thematic Debate on "Advancing Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls for a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda", hosted by the President of the UN General Assembly. With the theme of "Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture It", the IWD event saw high-level participation including, Sam Kahamba Kutesa, President of the UN General Assembly; Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General; Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director; and other dignitaries.

Related IWD Events Worldwide 2015

Tuesday, 3 March

Looking at trade policy through a gender lens

10:00 – 13:00, Central European Time, 3 March, Room XXV, E-Building, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
Hosted by: UNCTAD

[RSVP & Event page]

The purpose of the event is threefold: first, to present the main findings of a series of country case studies on trade and gender that UNCTAD has carried out during the last four years. The conclusions and policy recommendations emerging from the studies may be of relevance to many countries.

The second purpose of the event is to launch a teaching package on trade and gender, a unique product UNCTAD has developed with the aim of enhancing teaching and research capacities on the topic at academic institutions in developing countries and transition economies, but also to providing tools to policy makers to mainstream gender concerns into trade policy. An eight-week online course based on the teaching manual started on 19 January 2015 for 104 participants from 51 countries.

Thirdly, the event aims at contributing to take trade and gender issues to a high level of political prominence. Read more and RSVP »

Friday, 6 March

Movie screening (French with English subtitles): Des femmes et des hommes

17:00, Central European Time, 6 March, Room XVIII, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
Hosted by: UNCTAD in collaboration with the UN Information Service in Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

A powerful account of how, worldwide, discriminations maim women's lives and gender gaps hold back overall social and economic progress. The film will be shown in its original French version, with English subtitles.

Sunday, 8 March

International Women's Day March, New York City, USA

HeForShe Conversation with Emma Watson

Emma Watson Facebook Chat 8 March 2015

17:00 London time (13:00 New York time), 8 March, Online
Hosted by: UN Women
(HeForShe campaign)
[Event page]

UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson is holding a Facebook Live Q&A on Sunday 8 March for International Women's Day. The event will be live streamed at https://www.facebook.com/emmawatson

If you are in London and would like to attend the HeForShe conversation with Emma, tell UN Women how you are making a personal impact to advance gender equality. Submit your story here http://goo.gl/forms/dRzVjsdNSR by 12pm London-time on Wednesday 4th of March. You could be selected to be an audience member at this special event. ‬Read more »

Monday, 9 March

TWEETATHON: International Women's Day, 2015

17:00-17:55, Eastern Standard Time, 9 March, Online
Hosted by: UN Millennium Campaign

[Event page]

Join the UN Millennium Campaign's World We Want for a Twitter chat on gender and data visualization in honor of International Women's Day. The Twitter chat will be held on March 9 from 5pm-5:55pm EST. To promote this year's IWD theme of "safety for women," the World We Want has joined Sayfty, in collaboration with 20 other organizations, for a two-day tweetathon to raise awareness on the issue of women's safety and ending violence against women. To follow the conversation on Twitter this March 9 at 5pm, please use #Sayfty4women #IWD2015 @WorldWeWant2015. Read more »

Wednesday, 11 March

Achieving Beijing: role of social norms for gender equality

13:15-14:30, Eastern Standard Time, 11 March, Room 7 GA building, United Nations, New York
Hosted by: OECD Development Centre, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC)

[Event page]

A growing body of evidence is proving the importance of including social norms into development interventions in order to accelerate progress on gender equality. Discriminatory social norms significantly limit women's access to empowerment opportunities, infringe their human rights and put a brake on development processes. These require a multi-pronged approach that takes into account the embedded discrimination against women in laws, practices and attitudes. Speakers will present new results from the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), and make the case for how social norms can be integrated into development policy and development operations in order to accelerate progress towards the Beijing agenda as well as the post 2015 framework. Read more »

Thursday, 12 March

Volunteering to advance gender equality: how to include more women in monitoring SDG progress

13:15-14:30, Eastern Standard Time, 12 March, Conference Room E, GA building, UN headquarters, New York, USA
Hosted by: UN Volunteers (UNV)

[Event page]

This expert panel discussion, organized by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme on the margins of the 59th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59), will explore the role of volunteerism, online and onsite, to enhance SDG accountability and monitor progress made affecting women's lives. It will look at volunteerism as a mechanism to widen spaces for voice and action within the development process, including for young women and girls, focusing on two related aspects:

  • volunteerism as a tool to strengthen accountability at the local level through participatory forms of monitoring, and
  • volunteerism as a mechanism for large scale data collection efforts, including through the engagement and empowerment of local women.

This UNV event follows a previous one held in 2014 on the side of CSW58 on the role of volunteerism, gender and local governance.

Read more »

Tuesday, 17 March

Making women's voices heard from Beijing to Post-2015 in social media

10:00-11:15, Eastern Standard Time, 17 March, Room 11 GA building, United Nations, New York
Hosted by: OECD Development Centre, in partnership with UN Women and with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development.

[Event page]

Women's voices – whether individual or collective – have proven to be fundamental to advance women's rights at national and international levels. Online communities and social media have become essential for women's rights groups to push for greater accountability and action on gender equality. In particular, grassroots women's networks have resulted in changes in laws and norms as seen in the last few years in India, Kenya and Niger. However, women's voices from civil society are still absent from decision-making processes, despite the fact that it is precisely those decisions that affect them. This event will explore how new media can broaden the scope for action on women's rights and gender equality within a post- 2015 agenda. Read more »