International Women's Day passed off peacefully in New Zealand but in other countries, it became a touchstone for long-standing concerns about the way women are treated.
Mexico City saw the worst violence, but there were also clashes in Islamist countries including Algeria and Pakistan.
Women in Mexico rose against a wave of violence towards them. The murders of a 25-year-old woman by her alleged partner and a seven-year-old girl - reportedly taken from her school - are giving their movement an aggressive momentum.
Ten women are murdered every day in Mexico, and women broke through barriers, damaged landmarks and graffitied historic statues in purple to demand authorities do more.
"Women - they are raped, they are mutilated, they are burnt, they have been found in water cisterns," says protester Larisa Morales. "Why? For breaking off a relationship? I don't think that's fair."
Women in Spain turned Madrid into a moving sea of purple - the colour that symbolises women's equity. The left-wing government there has only recently approved a bill to qualify all non-consensual sex as rape.
Previously a perpetrator must have used physical violence or intimidation for an assault to be classified as rape.
In Algeria, the mood was more militant as women protesters clashed with police.
"We are not here to celebrate," one woman says. "We are here to demand freedom."
In Pakistan, Islamist men fought back by pelting campaigners with stones, sticks, and shoes as they marched through Islamabad. Police blocked others as they tried to attack the women.
Police in Istanbul blocked marchers from entering the main pedestrian street and even used tear gas.
London's protests were more peaceful and the "sisters not strangers" theme boasted star power like Bianca Jagger.
But in some countries, the women's movement has plenty left to protest about.
