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International Women's Day: All stories

International Women's Day: All stories
International Women's Day is marked on the 8th of March every year. The first observance of the Women's Day was in 1909 in New York as a remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, but evolved through later years into a day marking protests for equal rights, specifically women's right to vote in elections and hold public office. In 1949 the People's Republic of China declared March 8 an official holiday; in 1977 the United Nations declared March 8 to be the UN Day for Women's Rights and World Peace.
Women across Asia are challenging bias to carve out entrepreneurial success. Photo: Shutterstock
International Women's Day

How Asian women are challenging bias to carve out entrepreneurial success

Funding woes, work-life balance and prejudice remain hurdles for women entrepreneurs, who say having supportive business partners and spouses can be half the battle won.

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India

India’s farmers joined by thousands protesting on International Women’s Day

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International Women's Day

China’s gender-equality failings still hold back women and economy, Beijing told

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Women and gender

Letters | How companies can ensure gender bias doesn’t hold women back

On International Women’s Day, readers discuss the need to better support women as they move up the career ladder, migrant domestic workers’ efforts to create a more inclusive city, and the Hong Kong government’s baby bonus.

Office workers in Central, Hong Kong, during lunch hour on November 20, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg
International Women's Day

‘Abused, threatened and violated’: women’s rights, gender equality battle takes centre stage

In this edition of the Global Impact newsletter, we look back at Women’s History Month, while the Post’s Women of Our Time conference took place a day before International Women’s Day on March 8.

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Hong Kong

Opinion | Needs of women must become a permanent part of policymaking in Hong Kong

The chief executive pictured surrounded by women officials makes for a nice social media post for International Women’s Day. But celebrating women, supporting their needs and efforts to give them a seat at the policymaking table must extend beyond an annual celebration.

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Japan

Japan admits it must do more to ease women’s struggle to balance work and home

Women find it particularly hard to balance work and household duties, still broadly seen as the woman’s responsibility, forcing many into unstable, lower-paying work.

Women in Japan often find it particularly difficult to balance work and household duties. Photo: Bloomberg
Banking & finance

Women ‘miserably’ under-represented in Asia-Pacific businesses, survey finds

Just 848, or 5.7 per cent, of 15,000 private businesses surveyed by JPMorgan across multiple sectors were founded or led by women. Those companies, however, excelled at fundraising.

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Indonesia

Video | Twin women teach marginalised children in Indonesia

Singapore

Singapore teen mocked on TikTok bags role as Charles & Keith model

After facing social media backlash for describing a Charles & Keith handbag as ‘luxury’, 17-year-old Zoe Gabriel has been chosen to model a bag for the brand’s International Women’s Day campaign.

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After facing social media backlash for describing a Charles & Keith handbag as ‘luxury’, 17-year-old Zoe Gabriel has been chosen to model a bag for the brand’s International Women’s Day campaign. Photo: Instagram/@zoeaaleah
Hong Kong society

Rights group abruptly calls off Hong Kong’s first authorised rally in 3 years

Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association does not explain why it decided against holding Sunday demonstration, which police had approved.

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The Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association had obtained a letter of no objection from police for Sunday’s rally. Photo: Warton Li
International Women's Day

‘I’m my own hero’: independent women fuel China’s booming ‘she economy’

Chinese women comprise the world’s third-largest consumer market – close to the combined retail markets of Germany, France and the United Kingdom – and have reshaped the nation’s economic trajectory.

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Science

Familiar barriers put China’s women scientists a long way from the top

Is China doing enough to reverse its shortage of women in the highest ranks of science and technology research?

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International Women's Day

‘She is multitudes’: why China’s chained woman struck a nerve

Artists, poets, lawyers and netizens have expressed shock about the plight of rural women sold to men and anger over authorities’ failure to protect.

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Illustration: Brian Wang.
International Women's Day

‘Best gift on International Women’s Day? Stop the war’

On global day to celebrate women, many fleeing Ukraine after Russia’s invasion are under immense stress to forge new lives, without their menfolk.

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A refugee fleeing the conflict in Ukraine smells a bouquet of roses on International Women’s Day, at the Romanian-Ukrainian border, in Siret, Romania, on Tuesday. Photo: AP
International Women's Day

Explainer | Gender equality at work: how do Hong Kong, Singapore and others compare?

Labour participation, parental leave policies, fair pay and protections against harassment give an idea of progress.

International Women's Day

Women held up half the housing market in China last year, poll finds

Women made up about half of all homeowners in mainland China last year, paying 4.7 million yuan (US$744,073) on average for flats in the country’s first-tier cities, according to a survey conducted by online property agency Beike Zhaofang.

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International Women's Day

On International Women’s Day 2022, three Hong Kong trailblazers

The plight of the environment, migrant workers and widows and divorcees has occupied the minds of these women in Hong Kong and prompted them to act.

Mashiat Lamisa wants people to rethink their relationship with consumerism and e-waste. Photo: Tina Vanhove
International Women's Day

Editorial | Tougher penalties can help protect women

On International Women’s Day, two shocking cases of abuse have created political fallout in China.

International Women's Day

Two-fifths of Hong Kong women have experienced sexual violence, survey finds

Only three out of every five interviewed in the study said they had sought help, mostly through family and friends.

Afghanistan

Opinion | Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan bodes ill for women in Pakistan, too

Widespread approval of the Taliban in Pakistan reflects the misogyny in both countries’ governance and politics. The fear is that developments in Afghanistan will embolden extremist narratives in Pakistan and worsen the underlying gender inequalities.

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A protest highlights violence against women, in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 24, after the beheading of a young woman in an upscale neighbourhood in the capital. Rights activists say gender-based assaults are rising as Pakistan moves towards greater religious extremism. Photo: AP
China technology

Opinion | What links Intel’s Chinese ad controversy and the Atlanta shootings

While Intel to chose to pull an ad featuring a female stand-up comedian after a backlash from angry men, the murder of women in Atlanta shows the deadly consequences of misogyny.

Flowers, candles and signs are displayed on March 17 at a makeshift memorial outside Gold Spa following a mass shooting in Atlanta. Photo: Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
International Women's Day

Women’s rights in Asia: how far have we really come?

International Women’s Day on March 8 always provides an opportunity to reflect on the status of women’s issues and gender equality - how far we have come and where we still need to go. We will look deeper into the issues involved in this edition of Global Impact. 

China’s Communist Party

Opinion | China’s political gender gap: so much for women holding up half the sky

The roots of the problem of low female political participation lie in the depths of China’s patriarchal culture. Party membership is a basic requirement if a woman wants to rise through the ranks of government and yet, out of 91 million members, only 28 per cent are women.

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Bangladesh

Video | Bangladesh’s first transgender news anchor

Bangladesh’s first transgender television news presenter makes debut
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China society

‘Relationship lessons’ pushed as solution to China’s male violence problem

A series of tragic murders and suicides as a result of domestic violence has opened people’s eyes to a serious social issue in China.

A string of well publicised cases of domestic violence has some asking how to better educate China’s young people about relationships. Photo: Getty
International Women's Day

Video | Housewife Nikmatul Rosidah cooks up hit with everyday videos

International Women's Day

Pakistan’s women want sexual rights. Do its men feel threatened?

‘There is deep fear around women claiming the rights to their own bodies.’

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