International Women's Day falls on March 8, and adult students arrive with real opinions about it. In some countries it is a day of flowers and compliments; in others it is a day of marches and strikes. That difference is your lesson: students compare, explain and disagree in English about something they actually care about.
Here are ten International Women's Day ESL activities for adults, from a quick quiz on how the day began to a campaign poster, plus a free activity pack with the printables for nine of them.
The activities at a glance | # | Activity | Level | Skill | | 1 | Women's Day quiz | A2-B1 | Reading | | 2 | Words for Women's Day | A1-B1 | Vocabulary | | 3 | Who am I? | A2-B2 | Reading | | 4 | A woman who shaped me | A2-B1 | Speaking | | 5 | What if? | B1-B2 | Grammar | | 6 | Actually, that's not true | B1-C1 | Discussion | | 7 | Flowers or fairness? | B1-B2 | Speaking | | 8 | Pay gap math | A2-B2 | Numbers | | 9 | Women in the news | B2-C1 | Reading | | 10 | Campaign poster | B2-C1 | Writing |
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| Free · printable PDFInternational Women's Day Activity PackThe printables for nine of the ten activities below, numbered like this post: a Women's Day quiz with answers, vocabulary cards, eight biography cards, What if? cards, stereotype cards, a ranking sheet, a pay gap page and a campaign planner.9 activities10 pagesA1 to C1A4 and LetterDownload the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
Why March 8 works with adult classes
- Everyone has a story. Every student can talk about a mother, a grandmother, a teacher or a boss, so even A2 students have something to say.
- The day means different things. Students from different countries celebrate it differently, which gives them a real reason to explain and compare.
- The language is useful. Equality, career, pay gap and role model appear in the news and at work all year.
- It fits every level. Past simple biographies at A2, the second conditional at B1, persuasive writing at B2 and C1.
How to keep it respectful
- Say at the start that people see this day differently, and that the class is practicing how to disagree politely, not looking for one right answer.
- Never split the class by gender for a task or ask one student to speak for all women or all men. Activities 6 and 8 use cards and invented people for that reason.
- Let students choose their own examples. A student who does not want to talk about family can pick a teacher, a boss or a famous woman.
- For a longer discussion, the 50 women's rights discussion questions post has questions from A2 to C1 and a free card deck about when women won their rights.
10 International Women's Day activities for ESL
Activities 1 to 4 work as warmers and suit lower levels. Activities 5 to 8 get students giving opinions. Activities 9 and 10 are projects for upper-intermediate classes.
1of 10A2-B110 minReadingFree printable · page 2 Women's Day quiz How it works- Students answer ten multiple choice questions about how March 8 began, alone or in pairs.
- Pairs compare answers and explain their guesses: I think it's Copenhagen because...
- They turn the page around to check. The answer key is printed upside down at the bottom.
| ExampleQuestionIn 1917, women went on strike on March 8. What did they ask for?AnswerBread and peace |
| Why it works Most students know the date and nothing else. The quiz gives the class the back story in ten minutes, and the past simple questions (Where was the meeting? What did they ask for?) are the grammar of the whole day. |
| Free printable · page 2Ten questions on the history of the day, with short answers printed upside down.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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2of 10A1-B115 minVocabularyFree printable · page 3 Words for Women's Day How it works- Pairs match twelve words to their meanings and write the letter in each box.
- Then cut out the cards, turn them face down and play pairs: a player keeps a word and its meaning if they match.
- To finish, each student writes two sentences about their own country with two of the words.
| Why it works Words like equality, role model and pay gap come up in every other activity in this post. Ten minutes on them first means students talk instead of asking what a word means. |
| Free printable · page 3Twelve word cards and twelve definition cards, with the answers upside down.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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3of 10A2-B220 minReadingFree printable · page 4 Who am I? How it works- Student A takes a card and reads the clues one at a time: I was born in Warsaw in 1867.
- Student B guesses after each clue. A right guess after clue 1 wins 4 points, after clue 4 wins 1 point.
- Swap roles after each card. For homework, students write four clues about a woman from their own country.
| ExampleClue 1I was born in Chile in 1889.Clue 4In 1945, I became the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. |
| Why it works Each clue is one past simple sentence that gets easier, so lower levels can play and stronger students can guess early. The cards cover Marie Curie, Gabriela Mistral, Frida Kahlo, Malala Yousafzai and four more. |
| Free printable · page 4Eight biography cards with four clues each and the name upside down at the bottom.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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4of 10A2-B120 minSpeakingFree printable · page 5 A woman who shaped me How it works- Each student thinks of a woman who changed their life: a mother, a grandmother, a teacher, a boss.
- Partners interview each other with six questions and take short notes.
- Each student tells the class about their partner's choice: My partner chose her grandmother. She taught her to be patient.
| Why it works Reporting a partner's story makes students switch from I and my to she and her, and the past simple carries the whole story. If students want more on family history, Family Roots is an A1-A2 lesson on grandparents and the family tree. |
| Free printable · page 5Six interview questions with note lines, plus sentence starters for telling the class.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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5of 10B1-B215 minGrammarFree printable · page 6 What if? How it works- Groups put twelve cards face down and take turns to turn one over.
- The student answers with the second conditional: If every boss were a woman, meetings would...
- The next student must answer the same card differently before a new card is turned.
| ExampleCardWhat if fathers got the same parental leave as mothers?AnswerIf they did, more women would go back to work sooner. |
| Why it works Hypothetical questions are the natural home of the second conditional, and questions like these get students to say what they really think about work, family and fairness. |
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6of 10B1-C115 minDiscussionFree printable · page 7 Actually, that's not true How it works- Each card has a stereotype that people often say: Men don't cry. Women are worse drivers.
- A student reads one aloud and agrees, disagrees or says it depends, with one real example.
- The partner answers with one of the phrases on the sheet: Actually..., It depends on the person, In my experience...
| Why it works The cards give students a statement to push back on without anyone having to defend it as their own view, and the phrases teach the polite way to disagree, which adults need far more often than in a Women's Day lesson. |
| Free printable · page 7Ten stereotype cards and a box of phrases to disagree, partly agree and give evidence.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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7of 10B1-B215 minSpeakingFree printable · page 8 Flowers or fairness? How it works- Students rank eight ways to mark March 8, from flowers and chocolates to equal pay and help with housework.
- Pairs compare rankings and must agree on a top three together.
- Each pair finishes one sentence: On March 8, women don't need..., they need...
| Why it works Ranking forces a decision, and agreeing on a top three makes students negotiate: I'd rather have... than..., OK, I can live with that. Expect a real argument about flowers. |
| Free printable · page 8A ranking sheet with Me and Partner boxes, phrases to compare and a top three.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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8of 10A2-B220 minNumbersFree printable · page 9 Pay gap math How it works- Two invented nurses, Ana and Tom, do the same job. Tom earns €20.00 an hour and Ana earns €17.60.
- Students work out the difference per hour, per month, per year and over a 30-year career.
- Pairs discuss three questions, such as Should companies show everyone's salary?
| ExampleTom€20.00 an hourAna€17.60 an hourOver 30 years€138,240 less |
| Why it works Numbers and percentages are hard to say in English, and this gives students a reason to say them. The gap on the page is the real one: women in the EU earned 12.0% less per hour than men in 2023, according to Eurostat. Students who want to ask for more themselves can go on to Getting a Raise, a B2-C1 lesson on negotiating a salary increase. |
| Free printable · page 9The case of Ana and Tom, five sums with answers upside down and three questions to discuss.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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9of 10B2-C1HomeworkReadingNo printing Women in the news How it works- Before the lesson, each student finds one news story from this week about a woman or about women's lives.
- In class, they summarize it for a partner in three sentences: who, what happened and why it matters.
- The partner asks two questions, then the class votes for the story that surprised them most.
| Why it works Students choose the story, so the topic is current and personal, and summarizing in three sentences is a skill they will use at work. |
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10of 10B2-C145 minWritingFree printable · page 10 Campaign poster How it works- Groups choose one issue for women in their town, country or workplace.
- They plan the campaign on the sheet: who it is for, a slogan of six words or fewer, a hashtag and three calls to action.
- Each group sketches the poster and presents it in two minutes. The class votes for the campaign most likely to work.
| ExampleSloganEqual work, equal pay.Call to actionAsk your company to publish its pay gap. |
| Why it works A campaign needs imperatives (Join us, Don't wait) and modals (We must, Companies should), and a six-word slogan makes students choose every word. |
| Free printable · page 10A campaign planner with six boxes and a space to sketch the poster.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
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International Women's Day Activity PackEverything for activities 1 to 8 and 10 in one free PDF, page by page in the order of this post.Download the free PDF |
Mistakes your students will make
Teacher's reference Slips to listen for during these activities | Students say | Better | Why | | She was born on 1867. | She was born in 1867. | In for years and months, on for dates: on March 8. | | She has won the Nobel Prize in 1903. | She won the Nobel Prize in 1903. | A finished time needs the past simple. | | If every boss would be a woman, ... | If every boss were a woman, ... | No would in the if part. | | She learned me to be patient. | She taught me to be patient. | The teacher teaches, the student learns. | | Women earn 12% less that men. | Women earn 12% less than men. | After less and more, use than. | | The equality is important. | Equality is important. | No the before an idea in general. |
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Lessons for International Women's Day
