Di­anne Joseph

When we give, we do not lose; we mul­ti­ply. This sim­ple yet pro­found truth em­bod­ies the spir­it of the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day (IWD) 2026 Give to Gain cam­paign. It is a clar­i­on call for in­di­vid­u­als, or­gan­i­sa­tions, and glob­al com­mu­ni­ties to aban­don the scarci­ty mind­set and em­brace a cul­ture of rad­i­cal gen­eros­i­ty and col­lab­o­ra­tion.

In the jour­ney to­wards gen­der equal­i­ty, giv­ing is not an act of sub­trac­tion. It is an in­ten­tion­al in­vest­ment in the fu­ture of our species. When we pour our re­sources, our knowl­edge, our time, and our ad­vo­ca­cy in­to women, we ig­nite a rip­ple ef­fect that shat­ters glass ceil­ings and builds stur­dier floors for the gen­er­a­tions to fol­low. Be­cause the da­ta is clear and the moral com­pass is fixed: when women thrive, so­ci­eties do not just sur­vive—they rise.

As we mark this In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day on March 8, I find my­self re­flect­ing deeply on the sa­cred du­ty of men­tor­ship. We must give back the very best of our prac­ti­cal wis­dom to the women and girls who are cur­rent­ly fight­ing to make their mark on a pro­fes­sion­al land­scape that re­mains, in many ways, an up­hill climb. Whether a girl is nav­i­gat­ing the for­ma­tive years of pri­ma­ry school, the so­cial pres­sures of sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion or the in­tel­lec­tu­al rigours of uni­ver­si­ty; whether she is ner­vous­ly en­ter­ing her first job or is an es­tab­lished ex­ec­u­tive seek­ing the next peak—sup­port is not a lux­u­ry. It is para­mount.

The world we nav­i­gate can be volatile, un­pre­dictable and at times, rougher than the high seas dur­ing a hur­ri­cane. To nav­i­gate these wa­ters, women need more than just tal­ent; they need a light­house. They need men­tors who have sur­vived the storm and are will­ing to share their maps.

My first and most ur­gent ad­vice to any woman or girl is this: Love your­self fierce­ly and be­lieve in your bril­liance. Self-be­lief is the bedrock up­on which every em­pire of suc­cess is built. You must be the pri­ma­ry ar­chi­tect of your own des­tiny, fu­elled by a re­lent­less de­ter­mi­na­tion to pur­sue your goals re­gard­less of the noise around you.

How­ev­er, de­ter­mi­na­tion must be paired with dis­cern­ment. As you seek guid­ance, look for role mod­els with proven, pos­i­tive track records. I re­peat: pos­i­tive track records.

In a chal­leng­ing world, not every guide is a guardian. Some may lead you in­to webs of con­fu­sion or com­pro­mise your in­tegri­ty for their ad­vance­ment. There­fore, sur­round your­self with lead­ers whose char­ac­ter is as ro­bust as their re­sume, and whose light makes your own path clear­er, not more shad­owed.

It re­mains a painful, lin­ger­ing irony that in 2026, some still cling to the ar­cha­ic per­cep­tion of women as the “weak­er gen­der.” In our in­ter­con­nect­ed, high-ve­loc­i­ty glob­al econ­o­my, this no­tion is not just out­dat­ed—it is a dan­ger­ous fal­la­cy. Look around you.

Women are serv­ing at the high­est lev­el of gov­ern­ment, lead­ing multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions, and pi­o­neer­ing sci­en­tif­ic break­throughs that change the course of his­to­ry. We are not just par­tic­i­pat­ing; we are set­ting the stage and leav­ing trails that fre­quent­ly sur­pass those of our male coun­ter­parts.

As an ed­u­ca­tor, I see this re­al­i­ty un­fold­ing in my class­room. My lec­ture glass­es are filled with women from every walk of life—hun­gry for knowl­edge, dis­ci­plined in their study, and vi­sion­ary in their think­ing.

Of­ten, the men are a vis­i­ble mi­nor­i­ty. This trend is mir­rored in the job mar­ket; when a pro­fes­sion­al post is ad­ver­tised, it is com­mon to see a larg­er per­cent of the ap­pli­cants be­ing women. We have moved far be­yond the nar­row, tra­di­tion­al con­fines of be­ing “on­ly” home­mak­ers.

To­day’s woman is a mas­ter of the “and.” She is a care­giv­er and a CEO; a house­hold man­ag­er and a high-out­put pro­duc­er. She works long, gru­elling hours, bal­anc­ing the emo­tion­al labour of the home with the in­tel­lec­tu­al labour of the of­fice.

This im­mense pro­duc­tiv­i­ty must be met with in­sti­tu­tion­al jus­tice. As such, or­gan­i­sa­tions must en­sure that there is al­ways eq­ui­ty in all terms and con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment. Fair­ness is not a favour; it is a fun­da­men­tal right.

Re­flect­ing on my own jour­ney, I am in­ti­mate­ly ac­quaint­ed with the pain’ that of­ten pre­cedes the “gain”. I know the ex­haus­tion of be­ing twice as good to get half the cred­it. I know the sting­ing iso­la­tion of be­ing the on­ly woman in the room. I will be hon­est with you: there were days of shed­ding tears when the pres­sure felt like it would break my spir­it. There were times I felt the weight of the world on my shoul­ders, and the count of those mo­ments is too high to record. But I nev­er wa­vered. I nev­er com­pro­mised my val­ues for a short­cut, and I nev­er let the pres­sure turn me in­to some­one I didn’t recog­nise in the mir­ror. In­stead, I con­tin­ue to dress the path and lift up my head!

To­day, I stand as a men­tor to scores of lead­ers. My scars have be­come my cre­den­tials. My mes­sage to you is to em­brace your val­ue un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly. Be hon­est with your­self about your needs, your worth, and your bound­aries. Keep your eyes fixed on your high­est star.

Re­mem­ber: No one will cham­pi­on your dream with the same fire that you do. You are your own best ad­vo­cate.

I love the theme “Give to Gain” be­cause it val­i­dates the bedrock of my ca­reer. I give back be­cause I want you to reach heights I could on­ly dream of. I want you to crash through bar­ri­ers so that the women who fol­low you find a clear path.

To the young girls, and es­pe­cial­ly our teenagers: your fu­ture is a trea­sure that must be guard­ed. Do not be en­ticed by those who en­cour­age you to dis­re­gard the wis­dom of pro­tec­tive par­ents or to take reck­less risks that jeop­ar­dise your safe­ty. If some­one asks you to walk away from your sup­port sys­tem or to com­pro­mise your fu­ture for a fleet­ing thrill, un­der­stand that they do not have your best in­ter­ests at heart. True sup­port­ers seek to shape your fu­ture, not shat­ter it.

I al­so pause to­day to ho­n­our our al­lies. To the men who see us, re­spect us, and stand be­side us—thank you. Your part­ner­ship is a vi­tal com­po­nent of this evo­lu­tion. When men cham­pi­on gen­der equal­i­ty, they aren’t just help­ing women; they are help­ing to build a more ra­tio­nal, pros­per­ous, and peace­ful world for every­one.

Whether it feels like a “gain” to give or whether it feels like a “pain” to sac­ri­fice your time and en­er­gy, re­mem­ber that the har­vest is al­ways worth the plant­i­ng. To every woman and girl read­ing this: I salute you.

You are more pre­cious, more tal­ent­ed, and more pow­er­ful than you have yet dared to re­alise. Stand tall. Stand strong. Go the full mile. Do not stop un­til you have reached the ab­solute full­ness of your po­ten­tial. Know that I, and a glob­al sis­ter­hood of mil­lions, are stand­ing right be­hind you, cheer­ing you on. We are turn­ing the pain of the past in­to the gains of the fu­ture.

Hap­py In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day 2026. Let us give gen­er­ous­ly, so that we may all gain to­geth­er.