IWD 2026: Stronger Together - The Power of Collaboration

Collaboration in Backlash

International Women's Day 2026 falls against a backdrop of unprecedented pressure on gender equality. The second Trump administration's early 2025 executive orders redefined federal recognition of sex as strictly binary, reinstated global abortion-funding restrictions, and froze or cut support for programmes that had saved hundreds of thousands of women's lives through maternal and child health initiatives over the prior decade.

These moves extend the blueprint of Project 2025 into 2026 priorities, targeting not only domestic reproductive access but also international aid flows. USAID pauses alone have already left over a million women and girls without contraceptives within days, with longer-term modelling forecasting sharp reversals in decades of declining maternal and child mortality rates.

The stakes extend beyond health metrics. The Commission on the Status of Women meets for its 70th session starting 9 March 2026, immediately after IWD, to negotiate conclusions on access to justice and dismantling discriminatory laws. Weakened multilateral participation risks softer outcomes at a time when legal gender gaps remain unclosed everywhere and harmful norms continue eroding protections against child marriage, gender-based violence, and unequal labour rights.

Conflicts amplify the urgency. Recent UN data show civilian casualties among women and children quadrupling in active war zones, with sexual violence in conflict surging. US retreat from related forums leaves space for other powers to influence agendas, while domestic political alignments in multiple regions blend religious conservatism with state policy to roll back previously settled rights.

Non-obvious trade-offs abound. Collaboration across borders and sectors promises multiplied impact through shared resources and advocacy, yet requires navigating fractures: feminist groups must sometimes engage wary governments or private actors wary of being labelled 'woke', even as conservative networks coordinate more effectively on family and sovereignty frames. The result is a landscape where generosity of effort, as emphasised in the 'Give To Gain' framing, becomes both practical necessity and strategic counter to isolationist shifts.