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)

“The Challenge!” Young boy relishes in a game of tug of war before school. Photo location: Lake Titicaca, Peru. (Photo and caption by Paul Heyman/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Wide-angle category winner. Part of the Illusion by Marcus Blatchford (UK). Location: National Dive & Activity Centre, Chepstow, Wales. “This is the deepest inland dive centre in the UK. The dive plan was to explore the deep end, but this time I dived ‘unplugged’ (without my strobes). With the exception of this change to my camera technique, there were no planned shots I wanted to achieve – just a fun dive with ad-hoc photos along the way. Shortly after this photo was captured, in 6C water and two hours of decompression ahead of us, we turned and started the long ascent back to the surface”. (Photo by Marcus Blatchford/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

A Vietnamese woman, wearing the traditional “ao dai” long dress, poses for photos along peach blossom flowers ahead of the Vietnamese “Tet” (Lunar New Year festival), in a field in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 2, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

Back in England, one of the British soldiers that continue to return in their thousands from Northern France, belies any mood of defeat with some high spirited piping on a train. (Photo by Parker/Fox Photos/Getty Images). 1st June 1940

Vanessa Low of Team Australia makes a jump in the women's long-jump T63 final at Stade de France, during the 2024 Paralympics, on September 5, 2024. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)

An exhibition staff member looks over artworks by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz on display during a preview of the exhibition “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” at the Tate Modern in London, Britain, 15 November 2022. The large-scale Abakan sculptures have been brought together for the first time in the UK. The exhibit opens on 17 November 2022 and runs until 21 May 2023. (Photo by Andy Rain/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Visitors hold mobile devicecs in front of the golden burial mask of King Tutankhamun during the first day for visitors after the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, Tuesday, November 4, 2025. (Photo by Amr Nabil/AP Photo)