World Marks International Women’s Day as Women Around the Globe Face Significant Barriers
Today marks International Women’s Day, the annual holiday meant to call attention to the gender equality movement. While women have made great strides since International Women’s Day was first marked in 1909, a significant gender disparity still remains.
Leading up to the holiday, Angel Studios released the film “Rule Breakers” about the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, whose studies suddenly became illegal when the Taliban took power in Afghanistan and banned education for girls.
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“‘Rule Breakers’ provides the world a glimpse at the reality facing millions of Afghan girls and women today who are living under Taliban rule,” Somaya Faruqi, the captain of the robotics team who is now living in the US, said. “They are being denied their human rights to education, their freedom and their dignity. Our voices will not be silenced,”
A new Gallup poll published in honor of the holiday showed that the gender gap is growing in many parts of the world. In 2024, Gallup’s most recent data, just 49% of US women and 67% of US men reported believing that women in the US are treated with respect and dignity. Only 10 years ago, 66% of US women and 76% of US men answered yes to that same question—meaning that both men and women are less likely to believe women to be treated with respect, and also the gap between men and women’s perception is growing.
Israelis were significantly more likely than Americans to report that women in their country are reported with respect, with 78% of the population responding affirmatively. In Turkey, by contrast, only 21% of those surveyed reported women in the country being treated with respect. And while the perceived gender gap in the US is growing larger, in Saudi Arabia, the gap is shrinking, with an eight-percentage point drop between 2024 and 2012.
