International Women's Day Gets the Google Doodle Treatment

Google is celebrating International Women's Day today with a homepage doodle that pays homage to women from all walks of life. The search giant's logo is surrounded by drawings of about two dozen women, young and old.

The theme of this year's IWD is "a promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women."

"As we commemorate International Women's Day, we must look back on a year of shocking crimes of violence against women and girls and ask ourselves how to usher in a better future," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "One young woman was gang-raped to death. Another committed suicide out of a sense of shame that should have attached to the perpetrators. Young teens were shot at close range for daring to seek an education."

This week, the UN is holding its largest-ever UN assembly on ending violence against women. "We will make the most of this gathering – and we keep pressing for progress long after it concludes," Ki-moon wrote.

"There have been great leaps forward for women worldwide in education, the world of work, justice and political representation, but there is still more to be done," the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts said in a statement. IWD gives us a chance and time to reflect on that – our continuing struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. It's a global day of action for women and girls."

IWD has been celebrated since the early 1900s. The first National Women's Day occured in the U.S. in 1909 in accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. During an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910, Clara Zetkin suggested the idea of an annual Women's Day during which women could press for certain demands. Conference attendees, which included women from 17 countries, voted in support of Zetkin's proposal and the first IWD was celebrated in in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland the following year.

Over the last century, IWD has expanded to many more countries and is now an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia, according to organizers.

In the U.S., there will be more than 200 events in honor of IWD, though the U.K. has more than 400 listed. Check out the IWD Events page for more.

For more of Google's doodles, see the slideshow below. Recently, the search giant has honored African singer and activist Miriam Makeba, Nicolaus Copernicus, ferris wheel creator George Ferris, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson.