Twitter celebrates International Women’s Day

The conversation around “feminism” has increased 300 percent over the past three years thanks to campaigns and hashtags, according to Twitter.

It’s unclear, however, whether or how much tweetfests really advance the cause of sisterhood.

Last April, for example, the microblogging service erupted in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign after 230 schoolgirls were kidnapped from a school in Nigeria by the Boko Haram terrorist group. The viral campaign — which featured selfies from first lady Michelle Obama and State Department officials — attracted more than 4.5 million tweets worldwide. But as of today, not a single one of the victims has been rescued from the Islamic fundamentalist group, which has pledged to turn them into slaves or prostitutes. (Four of the girls reportedly escaped from captivity last fall.)

But the big nothing that resulted from #BringBackOurGirls has not slowed the proliferation of feminism-related hashtages over the past year, including: #YesAllWomen, #YouOkSis, #sendeanlat, #WhyLoiter, #NotBuyingIt, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen and #MyFeminismLooksLike.

Actress Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” films, started another trend — the #HeForShe campaign. The gender equality campaign was kickstarted by Watson, the United Nation’s Women Goodwill Ambassador, at the UN’s headquarters in New York in September. When Watson made her speech, the volume of tweets sent about “feminism” increased by 115 percent, according to Twitter. The number of people discussing the topic also nearly doubled.

A similar thing happened following Beyonce’s MTV Video Music Awards performance in August, in which the word ‘feminist’ was displayed in huge font behind her silhouette. Following the performance, Twitter reported a 64 percent increase in conversation about feminism and a 15 percent increase in the number of Twitter users participating.

Other moments that have pushed the conversation about feminism include actress Patricia Arquette’s Oscare acceptance speech last month, during which the “Boyhood” supporting actress demanded equal pay for women (#equalpay), as well as the Dove campaign, which encourages women to #SpeakBeautiful about themselves.

Twitter users Sunday are encouraged by the social media platform to use #IWD2015 to join the conversation and use the official #MakeItHappen hashtag to celebrate International Women’s Day.