My Fox New York - Published : Thursday, 08 Mar 2012, 7:03 PM EST
In one of the most universal acknowledgements of the date and cause, Google came up with a special Women's Day doodle in bright colors, with the universal female symbol replacing the first "g."
The day to celebrate women's economic, social and political achievements is celebrated globally, and in some countries, including China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, March 8 is a national holiday.
According to the official International Women's Day website, some 437 events were planned to mark the day in the UK this year, followed by 254 in the US, 189 in Canada and 139 in Australia.
In a statement released by the White House, President Barack Obama lauded women's achievements and stressed their role in furthering progress and democracy around the world.
"We are committed to a future in which our daughters and sons have equal opportunities to thrive, because when women succeed, communities and countries succeed," Obama said. "Experience shows that true democracy cannot be built without the full and equal participation of half our population."
In Washington, Clinton and the first lady honored ten other women from around the world with International Women of Courage Awards presented at the State Department.
"Women in Egypt and Tunisia and other nations have just as much right as the men to remake their governments, to make them responsible, accountable, transparent," Clinton said. "We will certainly be watching and the world will watch."
As if echoing her words, hundreds of women marched through Cairo demanding the right to co-draft the country's new constitution, AFP reported.
"Women's rights are human rights," read one of their banners and many wore badges demanding 50 percent representation on the panel that will write the new constitution.
In Istanbul, AFP said, police detained four Ukrainian feminists who staged a topless protest in a busy location to protest domestic violence in Turkey.
Iraqi women organized a number of events, including a conference on violence against women, and in Mauritania, women marched against rising food prices.
UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay called in Geneva for women to play a greater leadership role, pointing out that women held only 19.3 percent of seats in single or lower houses of parliament and only 12 of the Fortune 500 companies had women in charge.
Read more: InternationalWomensDay.com
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