International Women’s Day 2026 – Blog

 

International Women’s Day 2026 

Blog by Dr. Toni Pyke

 

 

“I keep telling my children that God will not abandon us,” Niveen from Gaza. 

 

International Women’s Day has been widely observed around the world each year on the 8th of March since 1913. The UN theme for 2026 is: “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls” calling for “action to dismantle the structural barriers to equal justice: discriminatory laws, weak legal protections, and harmful practices and social norms that erode the rights of women and girls”. With only 4 years remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the reality of realising the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development towards ‘equal justice’ appears to be beyond reach. Only 18 % of the SDGs are ‘on track’ with 40% of countries stagnating or regressing on women’s rights.  

If we consider the data on gender parity and gender equality, no country in the world has achieved either. Some countries have come close such as Iceland (92.6%), which is the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its gender gap since 2022. Ireland’s gap is at 80.1%, with the global gap at 68.8%. Based on the collective speed of progress of 100 major economies, it will take 123 years to reach full gender parity (equal representation of genders in decision making) and nearly 300 years to reach full gender equality (all individuals have the same rights, opportunities, and access to resources) globally. 

Girls education continues to be denied, with over 85 million children affected by crisis out of school, of which 51.9 per cent are girls. In Afghanistan, four years after the Taliban takeover, 8 out of 10 young Afghan women are excluded from education, jobs or training.    

No-where in the world are women able to feel safe. Nearly 1 in 3 women will experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime – and this statistic doesn’t include sexual harassment.  

Covid, climate change and escalating conflicts have exacerbated this reality. With over 185 armed conflicts recorded across the world, including 61 active conflicts involving at least one state, 676 million women and girls live within 50 kilometres of these conflicts, the highest recorded since the 1990s. There is evidence of increased violence against women, with an 87% rise between 2022 and 2024, documenting more than 4,600 cases of conflict-related sexual violence – including sexual violence used as a tactic of war, torture, terror and political repression. Moreover, gender-based violence was reported as ‘severe’ or ‘extreme’ in 22 of 25 countries that experienced humanitarian crises. 

Conflict drives hunger in most of the world’s food crises, with 1 in 4 women around the world experiencing food insecurity. In 2024, more than 295 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity, and 47% of them lived in conflict or insecurity zones.  

Women’s voices continue to be silenced. A 2024 report by CARE found that while media coverage of conflicts increased more than six-fold between 2013 and 2023, only 5% of articles focused on women’s experiences in war – and only 0.04 % highlighted women’s contribution as leaders in peace processes.  

If we consider the unfolding genocide in Gaza as an illustration of some of these realities, the UN report that: “For two years, women and girls in Gaza were killed at a rate of roughly two every hour.” Life expectancy has been reduced to 30 years. Nearly a quarter of a million women and girls in Gaza are starving and half a million more are facing extreme hunger and acute malnutrition. Women and girls experience additional burdens related to personal hygiene, with nearly 700,000 women and girls of reproductive age struggling to manage menstruation, most often in overcrowded or unsafe facilities and lack of access to hygiene products. With the majority of hospitals and health facilities damaged or destroyed, medicine stocks running severely low or unavailable, medical equipment severely damaged and being forced to constantly be on the move, giving birth in Gaza can be fatal.  

Each day we witness the suffering and pain of mothers across Gaza and the West Bank as they watch their children starved, made homeless, burned, bombed, arrested, tortured, violated, their organs stolen, denied education, denied lifesaving medicine and care, denied basic human dignity, missing, dying, killed. Mothers are denied their right to be caregivers for their families, forced to spend hours, risking their lives searching for scraps of food or water to sustain her family or to listen to the cries of hunger from her children. Often alone. More than one in seven families are now headed by women. This is without somehow sustaining the emotional burden of trying to hold families together through the terror, uncertainty and loss each day as the violence and siege continues. Compounded by the absurdity and insult of external endeavours to further exploit the population of the Gaza strip, through the recent establishment of an ominous ‘Board of Peace’ that continues to silence and suppress the voices of the people of Palestine.  

These women and girls are not just statistics. Each has a name, a place in their society, dreams and hopes, a life. Despite their suffering and huge loss, they are survivors of an apocalyptic reality that much of the world is choosing to ignore. Yet, throughout their pain, they remain steadfastly committed to their faith.  

As Christians, we begin our 40-day journey through Lent, a time for reflection and renewal. On International Women’s Day, and as we prepare for Easter, remember the women and girls around the world living in fear, hunger, violence, war. Please remember especially the women and girls living in Gaza and the West Bank. Be a voice for them. Raise their voices. Share their reality. Pray for justice and lasting peace, “peace that is unarmed and disarming, which comes from God, a gift of his unconditional love, and is entrusted to our responsibility” (Pope LeoXIV). Wherever you can, be an advocate for the lives of women around the world. Follow the critical campaign of the faith based collective Act to Prevent Trafficking (APT) and consider becoming a member. Join the SafeBirth4All campaign seeking an end to the suffering of women and girls around the world who experience obstetric fistula, a horrific and unnecessary birth injury. There are many ways to act to contribute to a safer, more just world for all those living in it.