MARCELO BENITEZ/CON VIA GETTY IMAGES
Between the spring of 2016 and early 2017, women around the world took to the streets in numbers rarely seen before. Some marched against violence and femicide, some for abortion rights or the right to pray as they chose, and others against corruption, police killings, land grabs or new governments. The photographs below, mostly taken by Getty Images and AFP photojournalists and gathered by HuffPost around International Women's Day 2017, show that year of protest country by country.
Each picture comes with the story behind it: who was protesting, what they wanted and, where we know, what happened next. Several of these movements won real changes within months. Poland's parliament rejected a total abortion ban, Lebanon repealed its "marry your rapist" article and Turkey withdrew a similar bill. Others are still being fought today.
The common thread is visibility. In each frame, women are not the backdrop to a political story but the people driving it, often at personal risk, facing riot police, tear gas or arrest. That is what makes these images worth a second look.
Background: from Women's Day to the 2017 marches
The tradition behind these protests is more than a century old. The first National Woman's Day was held in New York City on 28 February 1909, organised by the Socialist Party of America. A year later, at a socialist women's conference in Copenhagen, German delegates including Clara Zetkin proposed an annual international day, and in March 1911 more than a million people marked it in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
The date of 8 March became fixed after 1917, when women textile workers in Petrograd went on strike for "bread and peace" on that day, helping to spark Russia's February Revolution. The Soviet Union made 8 March a public holiday, and in 1965 a non-working day. The United Nations began marking International Women's Day in 1975, during International Women's Year.
The Women's Marches of January 2017
On 21 January 2017, the day after Donald Trump's inauguration, an estimated 3.3 to 4.6 million people marched in the United States, at the time the largest single-day protest in the country's history. Organisers counted hundreds of sister marches on all seven continents.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Brussels, Belgium, 20 January 2017. The evening before the main marches, women in Brussels lit candles in a "lights for rights" vigil timed to Trump's inauguration speech. The quiet, candlelit format was a deliberate contrast to the noise of the following day. Photo by Kevin Van den Panhuyzen for NurPhoto.
Sarah Morris via Getty Images
Los Angeles, USA. A small girl in sunglasses and a knitted hat raises her fist at the Los Angeles march, where tens of thousands filled downtown streets. Many families brought young children, turning the day into a first political memory for a generation. Photo by Sarah Morris.
PEDRO PARDO via Getty Images
Mexico City, Mexico. A protester holds up a hand-lettered sign reading "Solidaridad y acción" (solidarity and action). In Mexico the marches also carried anger at Trump's campaign rhetoric about Mexicans and his promised border wall. Photo by Pedro Pardo for AFP.
Fiona Goodall via Getty Images
Auckland, New Zealand. Thanks to the time difference, New Zealand was among the first places to march. Thousands walked up Queen Street with signs such as "Be the change you wish to see in the world", in solidarity with Washington. Photo by Fiona Goodall.
Steffi Loos via Getty Images
Berlin, Germany. In front of the Brandenburg Gate, a woman wears the American flag as a headscarf, echoing Shepard Fairey's "We the People" poster, a copy of which is visible beside her. The image became a symbol of the marches' defence of Muslim women. Photo by Steffi Loos.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Paris, France. At the rally near the Eiffel Tower, a pregnant marcher's coat opens to reveal a sign: "Future feminists on board". Paris was one of more than 30 countries that held solidarity rallies that day. Photo by Julien Mattia for NurPhoto.
Against violence and femicide
The single biggest theme in these pictures is violence against women. In Latin America, the Ni Una Menos ("not one woman less") movement began in Argentina in June 2015, when about 200,000 people marched in Buenos Aires after the murder of 14-year-old Chiara Páez. Its name echoes a 1995 phrase by Mexican poet Susana Chávez, who protested the killings of women in Ciudad Juárez.
Marcelo Benitez/CON via Getty Images
Valparaíso, Chile, 19 October 2016. Feminist activists join the Ni Una Menos day of action, held the same day across Latin America. In Chile, the march also demanded justice for Florencia Aguirre, a young girl from Coyhaique whose killing, reportedly by her father, had shocked the country. Photo by Marcelo Benítez.
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São Paulo, Brazil, 23 October 2016. Members of feminist and social movements sit in the street to condemn the killing of Lucía Pérez, a 16-year-old drugged, raped and murdered in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Her death prompted the first "Black Wednesday" strike on 19 October, with protests from Mexico to Spain. Photo by Daia Oliver for Brazil Photo Press.
Cris Faga/CON via Getty Images
São Paulo, Brazil, 8 June 2016. Women march after the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro, a crime made worse by a video of the attack shared online. Interim president Michel Temer responded by promising a dedicated police unit to tackle violence against women. Photo by Cris Faga.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Campinas, Brazil, 5 January 2017. A woman with red paint on her neck and face attends a rally after a New Year's Eve massacre in which a man killed his ex-wife, their son and ten others at a family party, most of them women, before killing himself. Activists saw the attack, explained in a letter widely described as misogynistic, as an extreme case of femicide. Photo by Dario Oliveira for Anadolu Agency.
Edu Leon/CON via Getty Images
Quito, Ecuador, 26 November 2016. A protester with painted bruises on her face marches in "Vivas nos queremos" ("we want ourselves alive"), a slogan used across the region alongside Ni Una Menos. The march took place the day after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Photo by Edu León.
PATRICK BAZ via Getty Images
Beirut, Lebanon, 6 December 2016. Activists from the gender-equality group Abaad wear bloodied wedding dresses to protest Article 522 of the penal code, which allowed a rapist to escape prosecution by marrying his victim. Lebanon's parliament repealed the article in 2017, although campaigners say related articles still leave loopholes. Photo by Patrick Baz for AFP.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Istanbul, Turkey, 22 November 2016. Women chant against a government bill that would have suspended sentences for men convicted of sexual abuse of underage girls if they married them. After mass protests, the government withdrew the bill that very day. Photo by Erhan Demirtaş for NurPhoto.
JACK GUEZ via Getty Images
Tel Aviv, Israel, 8 July 2016. Participants kiss at the city's annual SlutWalk; one has "Not your fetish" written on her arm. The SlutWalk movement began in Toronto in 2011 after a police officer told students that women should avoid dressing "like sluts" to stay safe. Photo by Jack Guez for AFP.
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Bogotá, Colombia, 8 March 2016. On International Women's Day, a marcher in Bogotá's SlutWalk holds a sign with a simple message: "No es no" (no means no). The slogan sums up the movement's insistence that consent, not clothing, is what matters. Photo by Luis Acosta for AFP.
Bodies, faith and the right to choose
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Warsaw, Poland, 24 October 2016. Under a sea of umbrellas, hundreds of women rally in the city centre during a further nationwide women's strike. They were opposing renewed plans to tighten Poland's already strict abortion law. Photo by Karol Serewis for Gallo Images.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Gdańsk, Poland, 3 October 2016. On "Black Monday", tens of thousands of Polish women dressed in black and walked out of work and school to oppose a proposed total abortion ban; around 98,000 protested nationwide. One woman's message, painted on her stomach, is unprintable here. Three days later, parliament voted the bill down. Photo by Michał Fludra for NurPhoto.
EZEQUIEL BECERRA via Getty Images
San José, Costa Rica, 3 August 2016. Mothers stage a "mamatón", a breastfeeding marathon, outside the Legislative Assembly. They were protesting the dismissal of a secretary who had been breastfeeding at work by a deputy of the Citizens' Action Party. Photo by Ezequiel Becerra for AFP.
MENAHEM KAHANA via Getty Images
Jerusalem, 2 November 2016. Members of Women of the Wall carry Torah scrolls after praying in the women's section of the Western Wall. Founded in 1988, the group campaigns for women's right to pray there aloud, read from the Torah and wear prayer shawls. A government plan for an egalitarian prayer area, approved in January 2016, was suspended in June 2017. Photo by Menahem Kahana for AFP.
Women against governments and police
Brazil Photo Press/CON via Getty Images
New York, USA, 4 February 2017. A woman is arrested outside the Stonewall Inn during a protest against Trump's executive order barring travellers and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries. The rally, at the birthplace of the gay rights movement, joined LGBT and immigrant-rights groups. Photo by William Volcov for Brazil Photo Press.
DANIEL MIHAILESCU via Getty Images
Bucharest, Romania, 6 February 2017. A woman holds up a sign reading "Demisia" (resignation). Romanians had poured into the streets after the government quietly passed an emergency ordinance that critics said would shield corrupt politicians. Up to 600,000 people protested on 5 February, the largest demonstrations since 1989, and the ordinance was repealed. Photo by Daniel Mihăilescu for AFP.
Marcelo Benitez/CON via Getty Images
Valparaíso, Chile, 26 May 2016. A riot police officer drags away a young protester during a national student march demanding free, quality education. Chile's student movement had been pressing for education reform for a decade. Photo by Marcelo Benítez.
CLAUDIO REYES via Getty Images
Santiago, Chile, 11 September 2016. A body-painted demonstrator runs beside a riot police truck during the annual march marking the anniversary of the 1973 coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power and overthrew President Salvador Allende. Human rights groups use the day to remember the thousands killed or disappeared under the dictatorship. Photo by Claudio Reyes for AFP.
HECTOR RETAMAL via Getty Images
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 29 November 2016. Holding a child, a woman recoils from tear gas during clashes between police and supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse in the La Saline neighbourhood. Opposition candidates disputed preliminary results showing Jovenel Moïse had won. Photo by Héctor Retamal for AFP.
SERGEI SUPINSKY via Getty Images
Kyiv, Ukraine, 6 July 2016. A woman raises her fist outside the Cabinet of Ministers at a trade-union rally under the slogan "European prices, European salary". Thousands demanded higher wages and pensions after steep increases in the price of gas and heating. Photo by Sergei Supinsky for AFP.
JOSH EDELSON via Getty Images
San Francisco, USA, 8 July 2016. At Justin Herman Plaza, a protester asks "Am I next?" after the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile that week. The rally came a day after five police officers were shot dead by a sniper at a peaceful march in Dallas. Photo by Josh Edelson for AFP.
ALAIN JOCARD via Getty Images
Paris, France, 14 June 2016. A grey-haired woman confronts a line of riot police during a protest against the government's labour reforms. Strikes that day closed the Eiffel Tower while France hosted the Euro 2016 football championship. Photo by Alain Jocard for AFP.
Andrea Baldo via Getty Images
Barcelona, Spain, 25 May 2016. A woman raises her arms in front of riot police in the Gràcia district, two days after the eviction of the Banc Expropiat, a former bank branch occupied as a community centre. The eviction set off several nights of clashes. Photo by Andrea Baldo for LightRocket.
Land, war and displacement
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Rohtak, India, 31 January 2017. Jat women, many with their faces covered, raise their hands at a sit-in in Jassia village demanding quotas for their community in government jobs. The Jat reservation campaign in Haryana had turned deadly a year earlier. Photo by Manoj Dhaka for Hindustan Times.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Srinagar, Kashmir, 3 August 2016. Women chant slogans at the funeral of Riyaz Ahmad Shah, a civilian killed during the unrest that followed the death of militant commander Burhan Wani in July 2016. Weeks of protests and curfews left dozens dead. Photo by Syed Shahriyar for NurPhoto.
Satoshi Takahashi via Getty Images
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 10 October 2016. Oum Sophy, representing villagers from Kampong Chhnang province, cries out during a World Habitat Day rally. Her community accuses a company of taking 182 hectares of their land, one of many land disputes behind mass evictions in Cambodia. Photo by Satoshi Takahashi.
OZAN KOSE via Getty Images
Istanbul, Turkey, 14 December 2016. Reflected in a puddle, a woman waves Turkish and Syrian opposition flags as an aid convoy organised by the IHH foundation prepares to leave for besieged Aleppo. Turkish charities were sending food, water and clothing as the battle for the city ended. Photo by Ozan Köse for AFP.
BULENT KILIC via Getty Images
Idomeni, Greece, 7 April 2016. Migrants and refugees push against riot police shields, demanding the reopening of the border with North Macedonia. Thousands were stranded in the makeshift camp after Balkan routes closed and the EU-Turkey deal took effect; Greek authorities cleared it the following month. Photo by Bülent Kılıç for AFP.
Pacific Press via Getty Images
Turin, Italy, 19 March 2016. Women sing at an anti-racism march where some participants lay under white sheets to remember migrants who died crossing the Mediterranean and the Sahara. Photo by Nicolò Campo for Pacific Press.
Gaza City, 6 March 2016. Palestinian women hold banners at a demonstration, two days before International Women's Day, in solidarity with Palestinian women held in Israeli prisons. Photo by Mohammed Talatene for Anadolu Agency.
What happened next
Several of these protests won quick results. Poland's total abortion ban was rejected in October 2016, Turkey dropped its child-marriage amnesty bill, Romania repealed its corruption ordinance and Lebanon scrapped Article 522 the following summer. Others proved to be the start of longer struggles: in Poland, a 2020 Constitutional Tribunal ruling later restricted abortion further, setting off a new wave of mass protests, and the Ni Una Menos movement continues to march every year.
Together, the photographs are a reminder that International Women's Day began as a day of protest, not just celebration, and that women remain at the front of political change around the world.
Sources: photographs by Getty Images, AFP, NurPhoto, Anadolu Agency and LatinContent photographers as credited; selection originally compiled by HuffPost; Wikipedia: International Women's Day; Wikipedia: 2017 Women's March; Wikipedia: Black Protest; Wikipedia: Ni una menos; Wikipedia: Women of the Wall; Wikipedia: 2017–2019 Romanian protests; Wikipedia: Marry-your-rapist law.
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