The United Nations officially recognized International Women's Day in 1975.

In December 1972, the United Nations General Assembly named 1975 as International Women's Year. This led to the first World Conference on Women in Mexico City in June 1975. People from 133 countries met to talk about how to treat men and women equally. They created a 10-year plan to improve the lives of women around the world.On March 8, 1975, the UN celebrated International Women's Day for the first time. In 1977, the UN asked all member countries to make it an official holiday for peace and women's rights. This helped governments start collecting data on how women were being treated in their own countries.Today, the UN uses this day to focus on specific goals. For example, the 2024 theme was about investing money in women to help society grow faster. Research from UN Women shows that equal jobs for women could make the global economy 20% larger. The UN also uses a tool called the Gender Inequality Index to track progress.In 2010, the UN created a special group called UN Women to work on these issues every day. They use the March 8 date to check if countries are meeting their goals for the year 2030. This makes the day a global deadline for improving human rights.