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)

“When I was 8 years old, my parents paid a smuggler to take me across the Himalayas, a weekslong walk over the mountains from Tibet to India. It was a trek that tens of thousands of other Tibetans have taken since the Dalai Lama fled a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. My parents must have had their reasons to send me here; they must have had the best of intentions. But 18 years later, I still don't know why they did it. They are not political people. They are small farmers who raise barley and a few yak in a rural area not far from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. I have not seen them since I left...”. – Tsering Topgyal via The Associated Press. (Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo)

A robot, developed by start-up firm Asimov Robotics, holds a tray with face masks and sanitizer after the two robots were launched to spread awareness about the coronavirus, in Kochi, India, March 17, 2020. (Photo by Sivaram V/Reuters)

Car headlights illuminate a woman walking through city streets as snow accumulates on December 16, 2020 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Winter Storm Gail is expected to bring more than a foot of snow in parts of the Northeast. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

An Indian laborer talks on his mobile phone as he transports a refrigerator on his back at a market in Jammu, India, Sunday, June 7, 2020. India whose coronavirus caseload is fifth highest in the world has partially restored trains and domestic flights and allowed reopening of shops and manufacturing. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

American drag queens Laganja Estranja and Morphine Love Dion perform at OUTLOUD Music Festival at 2024 WeHo Pride on May 31, 2024 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Sarah Morris/WireImage)

Police officers in action during the eviction of the “Liebig 34” squat, at Friedrichshain district in Berlin, Germany, 09 October 2020. A local court ruled in favor of the eviction of the self-declared “anarcha-queer feminist” house project at Liebig street 34 in June 2020. The house project is considered a stronghold of the left-wing scene in the German capital. (Photo by Filip Singer/EPA/EFE)