8th March 2024

International Women’s Day in the Classroom

International Women’s Day is a global day that celebrates women and their social, economic, cultural, and political achievements! The day also looks at gender equality and how we can create a more gender-inclusive world for all. International Women’s Day, like other notable global days, is an excellent educational opportunity for students regardless of their age. It gives you a chance to provide valuable material on gender equality and also encourage healthy conversation among students.

In some instances, there are topics within International Women’s Day that can be difficult to broach; however, there are some basic things you can do to raise awareness of International Women’s Day in the classroom.

Here are some ideas that you can try out!

Explain why we celebrate International Women’s Day

It’s important to provide some background education for students on International Women’s Day and why it’s celebrated. It can also be an excellent opportunity for you to discuss gender stereotypes and how gender (both male and female) can affect people’s lives on a day-to-day basis. For example, you can talk about gender stereotypes in the context of sports, or job roles, or even roles within a household. 

This will also allow you to see what opinions and values your students currently hold and for you to be able to have healthy conversations with them. This can also be an opportunity to elaborate on gender equality and how creating more opportunities for women can also make things better for men long term. Depending on the age range of your classroom, you may have opposing beliefs. So, it’s important to understand these and make sure that your explanation of IWD is inclusive and doesn’t make boys in the class feel excluded. 

Here’s some information on the history of IWD to get you started:

“In 1910, Clara Zetkin, the leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. The proposal received unanimous support from over one hundred women representing 17 countries.

The very first International Women’s Day was held the following year on 19 March. Meetings and protests were held across Europe, with the largest street demonstration attracting 30,000 women. In 1913, IWD was moved to 8 March and has been held on this day ever since.” – UN Women

Invest in an IWD pack for the classroom

The official International Women’s Day website provides school resources that you can order. Click here to access the pack.

“​Whether looking ​​​for detailed resources or quick materials, there is a wide range of informative, fun and reliable classroom resources available. In addition to the resources, remember to use some of the inspiring and informative International Women’s Day videos as discussion starters to raise awareness, reinforce gender concepts, or provide inspiring ways to celebrate IWD.”

What woman inspires you?

Get your students to write a short paragraph on a woman in their life who inspires them and who isn’t related to them. So, this could be a teacher, a friend, an author, or a public figure. Take time going around the class and get each student to read out what they’ve written. 

If you have time, discuss it and thank each student for taking the time to highlight an important woman in their lives. It’s crucial to inspire students to look at positive female figures beyond relatives, as this can be considered an ‘easy option’. You can then display these paragraphs on a wall in your classroom and keep them up for the rest of the month of March.

What is feminism?: Debunk the top myths for your classroom

Feminism can be a difficult topic to cover, particularly as there can be many views on what feminism really is. You can cover feminism efficiently and educationally by debunking the top myths for your classroom. Firstly, start by showing students what the definition of feminism is, and then get them to ask you questions about feminism based on things they may have heard. If you’re struggling to get engagement, use these questions as starters:

• Feminism is anti-men
• All feminists are the same
• Feminists hate traditional roles

These starter questions are a great way for you to talk about feminism at a factual level and ignite some interesting conversation in your classroom! Ensure that when providing answers for your students, you are giving answers that target intersectional feminism. We have pulled together some resources for you to help you best answer questions:

Womankind.org: What is intersectionality and why is it important

Human rights careers: Intersectional feminism

Happy International Women’s Day – we hope you found these resources of use. For more lesson ideas check out our other blog posts here