For those old enough to remember, it almost feels like an extension of the women’s feminist movement of the 1960s and the 1970s. I’m a little young to remember specific details, but I’m old enough to know the movement captured the frustration of college-educated women, mostly housewives, who felt trapped and unfulfilled because they were being treated as less than equal to their male counterparts. Many still are. 

And now with the Internet, the frustration is revealed in Google searches. This time men are jumping into the fray, having candid conversations about gender equality.

On March 8, people worldwide celebrated International Women’s Day in an effort to advance gender equality and celebrate women’s achievements and their impact on cultural, political, and social issues.

Google data shows that International Women’s Day reached peak search interest in March 2017 — the same month that global search interest in gender equality reached its highest point, reports the search engine. It’s interesting to see from the data that searches peaked in cities like Honolulu, and not surprisingly Santa Barbara and San Francisco. More surprisingly, searches also peaked in Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Madison, Wisconsin. 

Last year’s event began with a worldwide Women’s March spanning all seven continents and aiming to bring attention to inequality surrounding issues such as women’s rights, but it didn’t seem to really catch the attention of the general public until 2018 — partly because of the controversies brought to light in late 2017 related to sexual harassment in Hollywood, government, and the workplace around the #MeToo movement.

In its post, Google mentioned that “Merriam-Webster called feminism its “Word of the Year” for 2017. People turned to the dictionary for the meaning of a word that saw spikes in interest linked to key events throughout 2017.”

Some of the top searches on questions include “how to help gender equality,” “how to support gender equality,” “how to measure gender equality,” “how to improve gender equality in the workplace,” and “how to talk about gender equality.”

Some of the top places worldwide in which search interest rose about the topic of gender equality includes Mexico, Sweden, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.