Lane County rallies and family-friendly programming set for International Women’s Day

At Wayne Lyman Morse Free Speech Plaza, 799 Oak St. in Eugene, Indivisible Eugene/Springfield will host an International Women's Day rally from 3 to 4 p.m. on March 8, an event the calendar describes as celebrating the 115th anniversary of the observance. The Register-Guard's compiled weekend calendar says hundreds of people are expected to gather in public spaces across Lane County for IWD events.

The Register-Guard calendar lists both advocacy rallies and family-friendly programming in Eugene and Cottage Grove, with multiple organizations across Lane County scheduling gatherings for March 8, 2026. The calendar includes the Indivisible Eugene/Springfield rally in Eugene and notes additional Cottage Grove activities, though specific Cottage Grove times, locations and organizers were not detailed in the listing.

Organizers and advocates around Lane County are aligning local events with this year’s global theme, "Give to Gain." The International Women's Day website, as quoted in the Register-Guard, says IWD "celebrates the global 'social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women,'" and that the 2026 theme "helps forge gender equality through abundant giving" and "encourages a mindset of generosity and collaboration." The Register-Guard copy adds that this can take forms "from charitable giving to nonprofits that help women around the world to recognizing the women and caregivers in our lives who do invisible labor."

The calendar entry situates the Eugene rally within the longer history of the observance. The Register-Guard recounts that in 1909 the Socialist Party of America named the first National Woman's Day observed across the country on Feb. 28, that an international conference in Denmark in 1910 confirmed the creation of an International Women's Day, that March 8 was chosen in 1914, and that the United Nations observed IWD for the first time in 1975. The listing also notes that International Women's Day is not a federal holiday in the U.S., but that communities, companies and educational institutions observe March 8 as a call to action.

Local nonprofits and family organizers planning to use IWD for fundraising or child-friendly programming will be watching turnout across Lane County; the Register-Guard calendar and its expectation that "hundreds of people are expected to gather in public spaces across Lane County over the weekend" suggest both opportunity and logistical needs for partners and public-safety officials. A portrait of Haleigh Kochanski accompanied the calendar presentation, though the listing did not identify her role in the events.

Eugene neighbors who plan to attend the Indivisible Eugene/Springfield rally at 799 Oak St. between 3 and 4 p.m. on March 8 will join a countywide slate of advocacy and family-focused gatherings that organizers say are meant to convert the "Give to Gain" theme into fundraising, visibility for women-focused charities, and public calls for gender-equity action.