Women’s Month, hinged on the observance of International Women’s Day (March 8), allows us to reflect on the progress, challenges and resilience of women. The 2026 celebrations are under the theme “Give to Gain,” emphasising empowerment, mentorship and the need to break remaining barriers to gender equality while promoting service and sisterhood.
I used to be more upbeat and positive about these celebrations, especially because of the influence women like Hazel Brown had on me in my impressionable years. I remain deeply grateful for what I learned and what had been afforded me, both in partnership and participation.
When the cynicism rises, as it does regularly on becoming more sensitive and pedantic, I allow it its moment but remind myself that I am only able to inhabit the world in which I live because the women of the previous generations spoke up and fought, imagining my liberty and dignity into existence. I am living their gain.
Beginning with the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, I got to admire the most ambitious and courageous campaign globally for gender equality. I am an indebted beneficiary of women who fought so girls could go to school and of women who spoke out loud when it was safer to be silent and receding. Women challenged laws so I could vote, learn, work, lead, serve and be safer.
Beijing and its outgrowth saw women around the world devote their time, resources, reputation and more to achieve system shifts that many who remain uninformed or unaware take for granted.
The generations after Beijing—Gen Z, Gen Alpha and Gen Beta, and the millennials on the latter end of that spectrum—are growing up in the change and benefiting from the actions. Their reference for what came before, however, is not automatic; it must be taught and learned from our history or through reviews of social and political movements to keep the fires burning.
From laws enacted with the aim of protecting women from domestic violence to programmes empowering women and girls, we are living in what others gave. So the theme “Give to Gain” reminds me that progress is not passive. Every gain we celebrate came from someone choosing to give, some having not lived long enough to see the full reward.
It was at Beijing that then US First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said that “human rights are women’s rights… and women’s rights are human rights.” Among those rights, she said, were the rights “to speak freely and the right to be heard,” putting to rest the “seen and not heard” misogynistic trope and sexist idiom of generations before.
As Clinton declared then, it remains that IWD and Women’s Month are a “celebration of the contributions women make in every aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in their communities, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens and leaders.”
Beijing celebrated women’s differences but promoted a common future. It recognised the shared common future women had and vocalised the need for “common ground” in order that “new dignity and respect” could be afforded to women globally.
“If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish,” Clinton said.
“If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish” (wams.nyhistory.org).
Now, about Women’s Month and women’s rights, I remain conflicted.
On one hand, I am easily a sceptic because these observances can feel symbolic, even repetitive. Occasionally, it is quite an exhibition for a day or a month, but my desire to celebrate is stymied because I cannot set aside the violence against women that I constantly witness here and worldwide. I am always left feeling like more should be done.
There is despondency too about that “freedom from violence,” and the equality progress is bothersome as well. I went back to a 2014 United Nations document which pointed out that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) explained that, “to achieve actual equality, the underlying causes of women’s inequality must be addressed; it is not enough to guarantee identical treatment with men” (www.ohchr.org). That’s instructive!
I want us to celebrate, but I am more interested in our giving in the small ways when no one is watching and there is no opportunity to showcase ourselves or put our giving on display. We all have something to give, and it does not have to be grand or limited to a specific month or day. We should make giving our lifestyle. And giving is as multifaceted as mentoring one younger woman, creating safe spaces in our communities, churches, workplaces, and families, speaking up when it is uncomfortable and unpopular to do so, or choosing collaboration over competition.
On the other hand, when I look at the global picture, I appreciate the progress. Slow, but progressing. Women are more educated, more represented, and more protected under law than at any other time in history.
