International Women's Day

Less Platitudes and Posters please...

I’ve found today incredibly hard and I am afraid it’s too difficult to be inspiring, when really I’m a combination of sad and angry.

My news feed, my Linked In, my socials, the TV, the radio, all of it, has been wall to wall “International Women’s Day”. You’d think as a woman, and a feminist I would be delighted that today celebrates women, and draws attention to gender inequity. And a small part of me is. But a far greater part of me isn’t. From Magic Radio and Classic FM to every PR and corporate relations department on the planet, the colourful logos and the pointless platitudes have seemed endless, and do very little to address the systemic barriers that women around the world continue to face.

IWD started in 1911. Yet here we still are. The patriarchal and misogynist systems of control remain firmly in place the world over.

Worldwide, women still enjoy only 64 percent of the legal rights of men. This includes all areas of life, such as business, family, mobility, money, property, safety, work and retirement. If progress continues at its current pace, it will take 286 years to close access to justice gaps for women and girls in legal protection, economic participation and bodily autonomy. United Nations Human Rights | International Women's Day 2026

In Jordan, despite there being more female university graduates than men, women’s participation in the workforce stands at less than 14% and with one in five Jordanian women reporting sexual harassment at work, why are we surprised?

In the Karamoja region of Uganda, harmful practices remain a major barrier to girls’ rights. Half of the girls are married before the age of 18 and many girls drop out of school as a result of early marriage or FGM, face heightened risks of HIV/AIDS, and lifelong trauma. Action Aid | International Women's Day 2026

Here in the UK, whilst some might celebrate the increasing numbers of women on FTSE boards, the continuing gender pay gap means that women effectively work the first six weeks of every year for nothing. UK Gender Pay Gap

And 1 in 4 women over the age of 16 have been raped or sexually assaulted. Fewer than 3 in 100 of those rapes resulted in anyone being charged within 12 months, never mind being convicted. 9 in 10 girls and young women in UK schools say that name-calling and being sent unwanted ‘dick pics’ or other images of a sexual nature happens to them or other girls and young women their age. 9 in 10. Let that sink in. Rape Crisis UK

So I’m afraid that for once I am short on inspiration and long on sadness and anger that despite so much effort, we have really achieved so little change. So please hit me up in the comments with examples of organisations and individuals (men as well as women) who are in the “deeds not words” space and genuinely doing something to change the paradigm.