On 8 March 2025, hundreds of people joined the International Women’s Day (IWD) March that took place in Edinburgh.
The march first occurred in 1911 in several European countries where women took to the streets to demand rights for women. The first iterations of International Women’s Day often centred on women’s worker rights or suffrage.
Over a hundred years later, women are still taking to the streets to call for equality.
This year in Edinburgh, the March started at Mercat Cross and proceeded to the Scottish Parliament, ending with speakers from organisations including Living Rent Scotland, Women’s Aid, and the Kurdish Women’s Initiative.
The Student spoke to women at the IWD March to ask why they were there. Many women explained that they wanted to show solidarity, or as one organiser put it: “It’s all about celebrating gender, and being a woman, and nice things!”
Others described wanting to protest the serious and often dangerous issues they perceived as still facing women. Mexican student Anet pointed to “femicides and violence against women” as her main reason for coming, and Chilean Francisca mentioned:
“In Latin America, there are still very severe issues, there are a lot of women being killed by their partners, there are problems with access to women’s health care, also there’s still issues with the gender pay gap.”
Some University of Edinburgh students who attended the March further criticised what they described as the university’s negligence of women’s rights and safety.
Overall, most women The Student spoke to emphasised how violence was one of the main challenges facing women’s rights today. Yet, despite the sobering issues being protested, several participants described how special it was to be part of the March.
As protestor, Cece, explained, “I felt so much power.”
Image via Juliet Gartside.
