Between resistance and sisterhood: why feminist engagement matters
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International Women’s Day, marked every March 8th, was never just a symbolic celebration. Its history can be traced back to egalitarian politics, from women striking in New York City for fair conditions, to Russian women demanding “bread and peace” in 1917. From the suffragettes to #MeToo, feminist movements have been in constant evolution but always rooted in resistance, fighting for rights that were never given, only won.
If IWD remains a landmark event each year, it is partly because the fight for equality is not over. Gender inequalities remain stark, whether in economic conditions, political representation, or sexual violence. But these movements offer far more than a platform. Built around the concept of sisterhood, they celebrate differences and allow every woman to belong, fostering deep bonds that enhance every aspect of their lives and provide invaluable support across all life stages
Rooted in protest: the origins of International Women’s Day
Every year on March 8th, millions of women and men across the world come together to honour women’s achievements and push for gender equality. Since the first International Women’s Day (IWD) event in 1911, the day has grown into a truly global movement, marked through marches, conferences and corporate gatherings. But behind the visibility and the momentum lies a history of struggle worth remembering.
The movement traces its roots to the late 19th and early 20th century United States, where women workers took to the streets of New York City to demand fair working conditions and equal rights. It was out of this wave of strikes that Theresa Malkiel, head of the Socialist Party of America’s Women’s National Committee, conceived the first National Woman’s Day in 1909, before Clara Zetkin brought the idea to the international stage at the Socialist International conference in Copenhagen the following year, backed by over 100 women from 17 countries. The first International Women’s Day was marked on March 19th, 1911 across Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
The date we now associate with IWD, March 8th, was also shaped by resistance. On March 8th 1917 Russian women went on strike demanding ‘bread and peace’, leading to the Tsar’s abdication and securing their right to vote. In 1922, Lenin declared March 8th International Working Women’s Day, honouring women’s role in the Russian revolution. It was only in 1977 that the United Nations officially designated March 8th as International Women's Day, cementing its place in the global calendar.
From the streets to the screens: the waves of feminist resistance
IWD was never just a celebration. If it is rooted in socialist and egalitarian politics, it’s because it reflected the reality of its time. But if the movement endures today, it is because feminist resistance has been able to adapt and reinvent itself across generations, continuously responding to new struggles as they come to light. In the Western world, this evolution is often understood through the framework of “waves”, a concept first used by Martha Weinman Lear in 1968, each representing a distinct cultural moment.
The first wave (late 19th - early 20th century) focused on legal inequality, and specifically the right to vote. In the UK, the suffragette movement was led by Emmeline Pankhurst and fought through disruptive action and hunger strikes, securing women the full right to vote in 1928. The second wave (1960s-80s) broadened the struggle to reproductive and workplace rights - marked in the UK by the Abortion Act 1967 and the Ford Dagenham strike in 1968, which directly inspired the Equal Pay Act 1970. The third wave (1990s-2010s) introduced the notion of intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, to recognise overlapping layers of oppression based on race, class and sexual orientation for instance. This wave also sought to embrace a reclaiming of femininity, through “girl power” and the Riot Grrrl movement. Some argue we have now entered a fourth wave, defined by digital feminism and epitomised by #MeToo, which went viral in 2017 shining a global spotlight on sexual harassment and rape culture.
This framework is not without its limits. It has been challenged for being exclusionary and overly simplified. Centered on white, middle-class feminism, it erases the contributions of women who came before the first wave and presupposes a linear, progressive path, when in reality waves overlapped and activism never stopped between peaks. Yet, the metaphor has the merit of highlighting something fundamental: rights were never given, they were fought for. Throughout generations, women put their lives, their freedom, and their jobs at risk to assert their rights - a lengthy process that has always demanded collective action and sacrifice.
More than a movement: a space to belong
The fight for women’s rights is far from over, and it is partly for this reason that hundreds of thousands of women continue to march and make their voices heard every March 8th. In the UK alone, the gender pay gap stands at around 7%, 1 in 4 women have been raped or sexually assaulted since the age of 16, and women represent only 32% of Peers in the House of Lords and 41% of MPs - progress, but still not parity. But beyond serving as a platform to amplify women’s voices, feminist movements, events and collectives are also spaces of sisterhood, enriching our lives and creating a powerful sense of belonging.
Sisterhood, as defined by Bell Hooks in 1984 refers to proactive political solidarity across women of different backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures. As such, sisterhood purposely embraces diversity as a way to enrich the movement, creating spaces where differences and disagreements are respected. This means overcoming the patriarchal socialisation that encourages women to see each other as adversaries, in order to build a united front that goes beyond shared victimisation and creates a truly inclusive movement where every woman belongs.
Beyond its political dimension, the strong bond between women that lies at the heart of sisterhood enhances almost every aspect of a woman’s life. Research has shown that strong female friendship fosters ambition and empowerment, provides a supportive network across all stages, from post-partum to menopause, and offers emotional comfort and strength in moments of vulnerability, including in the face of domestic abuse. In an increasingly digital world, these benefits extend to online communities too. In a world built by and for men, feminist engagement offers far more than a path to equal rights: it offers spaces where women can freely belong, take up space and be unapologetically themselves.
