Every year, International Women’s Day invites organizations to pause and recommit to gender equity at work.
This year’s theme: Give to Gain, sounds hopeful. Generous. Forward-looking.
And it is.
But if we sit with it a little longer, the theme also asks something deeper. Because gaining real progress often requires more than giving opportunities. It requires letting go of the things that quietly block progress in the first place.
If organizations want to truly gain stronger women leaders, healthier cultures, and more equitable workplaces, we have to ask:
What are we willing to give up?
To Gain Equity, We Need to Give Up Bias
Unconscious bias rarely announces itself loudly. It shows up in everyday decisions.
- Who gets described as “leadership material.”
- Who gets stretch opportunities.
- Who gets called “confident” versus “aggressive.”
- Who gets benefit of doubt during mistakes.
Individually, these moments seem small. Over time, they shape careers.
To gain equitable leadership pipelines, we must give up the comfort of believing our decisions are neutral.
To Gain Belonging, We Must Give Up Microaggressions
Microaggressions are often dismissed as minor. But their impact is cumulative.
- Comments about tone.
- Assumptions about commitment.
- Jokes that reinforce stereotypes.
- Questions that subtly undermine authority.
These experiences require emotional labour. They force women to manage perception instead of focusing fully on performance.
If we want to gain confidence, innovation, and retention, we must give up normalising everyday exclusion.
To Gain Diverse Leadership, We Must Give Up Narrow Definitions of Authority
Leadership has historically been shaped around certain behaviours, decisiveness without doubt, authority without softness, ambition without apology.
But women leaders often face a double bind. When they lead collaboratively, they’re seen as weak. When they lead assertively, they’re labelled difficult.
To gain truly inclusive leadership cultures, organizations must give up rigid ideas of what leadership should look like.
- Authority can be thoughtful.
- Influence can be empathetic.
- Strength can be steady, not loud.
To Gain Sustainable Growth, We Must Give Up Over-Reliance on Resilience
Women are often praised for resilience. For “handling it.” For adapting.
But resilience should not be the cost of inequity.
When systems rely on individuals to constantly adjust instead of addressing structural barriers, burnout becomes inevitable.
If we want to gain sustainable performance, we must give up the expectation that women will simply navigate around bias instead of challenging it.
Give to Gain Is an Invitation to Evolve
Yes, organizations must give:
- Give sponsorship.
- Give opportunities.
- Give pay equity.
- Give visibility.
- Give leadership development.
But we must also give up:
- Bias.
- Microaggressions.
- Stereotypes.
- Outdated norms.
Because progress is not only about adding more support. It’s about removing the invisible friction that slows equity down.
This International Women’s Day 2026, under the theme Give to Gain, the real question isn’t only:
“What are we giving?”
It’s also:
“What are we finally ready to let go of?”
