Thousands of women are expected to take to the streets around the world, to mark this year’s International Women’s day an annual event that celebrates women’s achievements while promoting global gender equality. This year’s theme ‘make it happen’ aims at encouraging the recognition of women in all professional fields where gender parity is still an issue.

Too often, it is the women that bear the burden of war or discrimination from Iraqi women being abducted and enslaved by ISIL to Nigerian school girls being kidnaped and forced into marriage

Prior to the big day, hundreds took to the street in downtown Toronto, calling for pay equality and better child care among other changes. Participants in the Saturday event also called for more actions to be taken on the more than 1,200 indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing over the past three decades.

Gender pay gap is also a point of concern for women advocacy groups; standing at 17.5% in the U.K while the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggests that it might take up to 70 years for parity between women and men to be achieved. Women continue to face even greater challenge when they return to their workplaces upon giving birth, with reports indicating that most of them usually end up being demoted to more junior roles.

Google Inc (GOOGL) is celebrating this year’s international women’s day with a doodle highlighting women in high achieving roles in the fields of science, sports, teaching and arts with a caption reading ‘Happy International Women’s Day’. The search giant will also be working with The Drum to acknowledge some prominent women working in the search and marketing sector with a poll expected to open on March 8th.

Last year, Google marked the event with a video doodle featuring over 100 famous female personalities including Pakistani teen and Nobel laureate Malala and Bollywood legend Asha Bhonsle. The first celebration of International Women’s day was marked on May 3, 1908 in Chicago U.S.