Google Doodle celebrates International Women's Day with special animated video

The International Women's Day, celebrated on March 8, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women - while also marking a call to action for accelerating gender equality.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights." Women’s rights and gender equality are taking centre stage in 2020.

Sunday’s annual International Women’s Day Doodle celebrates women coming together throughout the world—and generations—with a special animated video.

The multilayered 3D paper mandala animation, illustrated by New York and London-based guest artists Julie Wilkinson and Joyanne Horscroft from Makerie Studio and animated by Zurich-based guest animators Marion Willam & Daphne Abderhalden from DRASTIK GmbH, represents both the history of this powerful celebration and the significance it has for women across generations.

The mandala’s black-and-white central layer reflects women around the world during the late 1800s to the 1930s amidst labor movements.

The second layer depicts women from the 1950s to the 1980s, a landmark era in the wake of pushes for gender equality and rapid changes to the status quo.

Finally, the outer layer symbolizes women from the 1990s to the present day, in the context of progress made from over 100 years of women’s rights movements.

It pays tribute to breaking barriers from former cultural and gender roles, as women continue to question, reclaim, and redefine ideas about the roles women take on in society.

As today’s women stand on the shoulders of those who have fought and made sacrifices in the generations past, they likewise carry the legacy of the movement forward.

The first International Women's Day occurred in 1911, supported by over one million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.