United Nations’ Days of Observance for Women and Men

Graph of the Week

This week’s chart illustrates the number of days that the United Nations’ (UN) observes for women’s issues and men’s issues.

Key Points

• The UN currently observes 13 days for girls and women.

• The UN currently observes zero days for boys and men.

Source: List of International Days and Weeks. Accessed on July 12, 2025.

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Bonus Commentary

The above figure updates results published in my 2020 paper, “Bias against men’s issues within the United Nations and the World Health Organization: A content analysis.”¹ Since then, three days of observance for girls and women have been added to the UN’s calendar: the International Day of Women Judges, the International Day of Women in Diplomacy, and the International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent. The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is also mostly framed in a female-specific way, but it was not included in the above tally for days of observance for girls and women because the resolution that established this day of observance also mentions that “men and boys are also victims of sexual violence in conflict.”

Currently the UN does not observe International Men’s Day or any other day specific to male issues. Yet, the UN observes days for:

• animals (e.g., World Bee Day, World Tuna Day, World Migratory Bird Day, International Day of the Snow Leopard),

• languages (e.g., Arabic Language Day, Chinese Language Day, Russian Language Day),

• sports (e.g., World Basketball Day, World Football Day),

• outer space (e.g., International Asteroid Day, International Moon Day),

• and many other things.

The UN is primarily supported by taxpayers of UN members states. Therefore, if the UN is to continue to receive taxpayer funds, it should be required to represent both women’s and men’s issues. This can be accomplished by reducing the hundreds of millions of dollars that are allocated to UN Women each year and allocating some of those funds for the creation of UN Men.

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Related Content at The Nuzzo Letter

UN Women Funding Sources

U.S. Men’s and Women’s Health Offices

U.S. State Commissions on Men or Women

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1. In my 2020 analysis, I mistakenly did not count International Day to End Obstetric Fistula in the tally for the UN’s days of observance for girls and women.