Wednesday March 8 marks International Women's Day, with festivals, concerts and exhibitions among the numerous events planned around the world to celebrate the achievements of women in society. The annual event has been held since the early 1900s and traditionally promotes a different theme each year, with this year's edition calling on people to #BeBoldForChange and push for a more gender-inclusive working world. Reuters photographers have been speaking with women in a range of professions around the world about their experiences of gender inequality. Here: Yolaina Chavez Talavera, 31, a firefighter, poses for a photograph in front of a truck at a fire station in Managua, Nicaragua, February 22, 2017. (Photo by Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters)

A masked reveller parades through the streets on the first day of the carnival season in Lucerne, Switzerland, 12 February 2015. In the background the well known Kappellbruecke bridge. (Photo by Alexandra Wey/EPA)

A spot-billed pelican sits on a street light in Colombo on March 16, 2021. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

“Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T. He was a diversely talented 20th-century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Romain de Tirtoff (Erte) – “Symphony In Black” (please click to enlarge).

A Sri Lankan child uses an inflatable tube to wade through floodwaters after heavy rains in Biyagama suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 06 June 2021. Many parts of the island have been inundated due to heavy monsoon rains. According to the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Center, at least 14 people have been killed so far and more than 245,212 people affected across the country. (Photo by Chamila Karunarathne/EPA/EFE)

Party-goers partake in a festival better known as Holi One, during International Workers Day in Johannesburg, South Africa, 01 May 2015. The colour festival promotes togetherness as well as colourness in everday life. May Day is observed worldwide every year on 01 May. (Photo by Kevin Sutherland/EPA)