“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognise, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde

This International Women’s Day, the theme is #GiveToGain – and it could not be more timely.

Giving is not a subtraction. It is intentional multiplication. When we give our time, knowledge, advocacy, visibility, and resources to women’s advancement, we do not lose – we build something bigger. A more equitable workplace. A more resilient economy. A more human world of work.

We are operating in a moment of real pressure. The cost of living crisis has disproportionately impacted women, particularly those from minoritised backgrounds. AI is reshaping work at speed, and the risk of it encoding existing bias into new systems is significant. And yet the potential – for flexibility, accessibility, and fairer opportunity – is also real if we choose to design it that way.

Striving for equity has always been close to my heart. My definition of equity is:

Understanding and giving women and those from minoritised groups what they need to achieve equal outcomes. This is achieved by considering the systems that disadvantage some and seeking to overcome them. To do so, we need to take an individual approach – to lead, share power, and focus on outcomes.

Key Takeaways

• This guide covers 37 practical actions that individuals, managers, and senior leaders can take to advance gender equity in the workplace
• Aligned with IWD 2026’s #GiveToGain theme – the principle that giving time, sponsorship, knowledge, and resources multiplies opportunity for women
• Covers six areas: awareness, voice, sponsorship, structural change, women’s health, and AI fairness
• Relevant to organisations across all sectors, with particular focus on the intersection of gender, race, disability, and AI adoption
• Written by Jenny Garrett OBE, leadership development expert with 20+ years’ experience working with organisations including the NHS, UK Parliament, and Lloyds Banking Group

Here are 37 ways to #GiveToGain this International Women’s Day and beyond. Let me know which you will try, or what you would add. Tag me on LinkedIn or use #GiveToGain and #IWD2026.

Give Your Awareness

1. Flip it – Have you heard a woman being referred to as a “working Mum”? I am guessing yes. How often do you hear men called a “working Dad”? If it cannot be flipped, do not say it. See the @ManWhoHasItAll parody account for a sharp illustration of the double standards still baked into everyday language.

2. Read Invisible Women – by Caroline Criado Perez – a book packed with data that illuminates how much of the world has been designed by, and for, men. It will change how you see everything from office temperature to medical research.

3. Complete the Implicit Association Test – Use the Harvard IAT to surface bias you may not even know you have. You might believe women and men should be equally associated with science – your automatic associations may tell a different story.

4. Tune in – Keep up with the challenges women face in work and society. Watch documentaries, listen to podcasts, read widely, and then ask yourself: what obstacle can I help remove?

5. Use an intersectional lens – Consider the diversity of women in your organisation. The minority within the minority. Are some women having it significantly harder than others? Look at the experience of Black women, women with disabilities, and women from the LGBTQ+ community. ONS data shows the median pay for disabled women is over 10% less than for non-disabled women.

Give Your Voice

6. Amplify – If you are in a meeting and the only woman in the room has made a point that has been overlooked, pick it up. Name it. Attribute it to her.

7. Challenge microaggressions – “Stop being so emotional” or “I find you aggressive” when a woman is being passionate and clear are not neutral observations. Name them, educate others, and do not let them pass.

8. Believe them – If a woman tells you she is experiencing bias, believe her. Dismissing her account is not neutrality. It is a missed opportunity for change.

9. Be an Ally – Mentor, advocate, and be a trusted confidante for women in the workplace. Read more about being an actionable ally. Pay particular attention to those who are often overlooked: neurodivergent women, women with accents, and women who are introverted.

10. Stop judging women on personal style rather than outcomes – Research shows performance reviews are 66% more likely to include personal style commentary for women than for men. See the HBR analysis.

Give Your Sponsorship

11. Sponsor a female colleague – Not just mentor. A sponsor advocates for women in key meetings and conversations they are not in the room for. Learn about sponsorship vs mentoring. Research shows 59% of Black women have never had this kind of senior advocacy. That gap matters.

12. Give introductions – Who is in your network that a woman in your organisation should meet? Make the connection. This costs you nothing and can change a career trajectory.

13. Give stretch assignments – Notice who gets the interesting, visible projects. Are you distributing opportunity equitably? If not, what are you going to do about it?

14. Promote on potential, not just track record – Women are often required to prove themselves repeatedly before advancement is considered. Men are more frequently promoted on perceived potential. Learn more about prove it again bias and close that gap deliberately.

Give Your Commitment to Structural Change

15. “One and done” is not enough – Recruiting one woman to the leadership table is not progress. Research shows women need to represent at least 30% of a board before they reach critical mass to meaningfully shift culture and decision-making.

16. Set public targets – What gets measured, gets done. Set visible targets for female representation at every level of your business and report on them.

17. Collate data – Track the recruitment, retention, promotion, and pay of your female staff. Include the intersection of their identities. You cannot address what you are not measuring.

18. Conduct exit interviews – And actually act on what you hear.

19. Review restructuring and redundancy processes – When organisations go through change, women – particularly part-time workers and those from minoritised backgrounds – are disproportionately impacted. Check your data before, during, and after.

20. Look at your gender pay gap – Be transparent about it. Then plan to close it. Transparency without a plan is theatre.

Give Flexibility and Inclusion

21. Make flexibility the default, not the exception – Create the conditions for ALL roles to be done flexibly and role model it from leadership level. Flexibility is not a perk – it is an equity lever.

22. Create inclusive environments for mothers – Stop expecting women to hide their parenthood to be taken seriously. Nearly 2 in 5 mothers say having children negatively impacted their career. That is a systemic failure, not a personal one.

23. Stop stagnating women’s careers when they are parents – Their contribution does not diminish when they have children. It evolves. Value it accordingly.

24. Do not leave the office housework to women – Admin tasks, making the tea, organising socials, taking notes. Notice who does these tasks. Read about non-promotable work. If it is always women, change it. And if a woman does take them on, make sure she gets credit.

25. Recruit age-positively – Use age-neutral language in job adverts. Challenge assumptions about older workers’ capabilities or commitment. Research shows women experience the intersection of gender and age discrimination acutely – particularly around caregiving responsibilities and menopause.

Give Support Around Women’s Health

26. Take menopause seriously as a workplace issue – Menopause affects approximately half the population at some point, and symptoms can significantly impact work performance, confidence, and career progression. Do you have a menopause policy? Have managers been trained to support colleagues? If not, this is a gap worth closing.

27. Create psychological safety around health – Women should not have to hide health conditions to appear “professional.” Whether that is menstrual health, menopause, mental health, or chronic illness, the culture you build determines whether women can bring their full selves to work.

28. Address the cost of living impact – The economic pressures of recent years have hit women harder – particularly women in low-paid sectors and those with caring responsibilities. Review your pay, benefits, and flexibility policies with this in mind.

Give Fairness in the Age of AI

29. Scrutinise your AI hiring tools – Algorithms trained on historical data replicate historical bias. If your recruitment or performance management tools use AI, ask your provider hard questions about bias testing and transparency. “The algorithm decided” is not a defence under the Equality Act 2010.

30. Give women a seat at the AI design table – The products and systems being built right now will shape the future of work. If women – particularly women from minoritised backgrounds – are not in the room when AI tools are designed and deployed, the risks of encoding existing inequity are significant.

31. Give digital access and AI literacy – Not all women have equal access to AI tools or training. In your organisation, who is being upskilled in AI capabilities and who is not? Audit it.

32. Celebrate women in tech and AI – The narrative that AI is a male domain is both inaccurate and damaging. Make the contribution of women in technology visible.

Give Beyond Your Organisation

33. Diversify your supply chain – Do not just think about equity internally. Seek out diverse suppliers and diversify your pool of coaches. Use your procurement power as an equity lever.

34. Support women online – Women and those from Black and minoritised backgrounds experience disproportionate levels of online abuse. Call it out. Report it. Do not normalise it.

35. Use positive action – It is legal, it is necessary, and it works. See the Runnymede Trust’s Broken Ladders Report – 75% of women of colour have experienced racism at work, and 61% report changing themselves to fit in.

36. Stop burdening women with fixing gender imbalance – On top of their day jobs. The emotional and practical labour of driving equity should not fall to those already disadvantaged by inequity. Do the work yourself.

37. Start at home – Who does the housework? Who carries the mental load of household admin and childcare planning? The culture we create at home shapes the expectations we carry into the workplace. What are you modelling?

This International Women’s Day, I want to ask you one question: what will you give?

Giving is not grand gestures. It is the sponsor who speaks up in the meeting you were not in. The manager who asks about menopause support. The leader who pauses before deploying an AI tool and asks: who does this disadvantage?

When women thrive, we all gain.

#GiveToGain  |  #IWD2026

Feel free to share this list to help others #GiveToGain – please credit www.jennygarrett.global

Check out my latest book Equality vs Equity, tackling issues of race in the workplace.

Jenny is available for keynote talks and is listed on the official International Women’s Day site.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does #GiveToGain mean for employers?

The IWD 2026 #GiveToGain theme asks organisations to give generously – time, sponsorship, flexibility, visibility, and resources – to advance women and girls. The principle is that giving is not a cost, it is a multiplier. When employers invest in women’s progression, they gain stronger talent pipelines, more inclusive cultures, and better business outcomes. Concretely, this means sponsoring female colleagues, auditing who gets stretch assignments, publishing gender pay gap data, and taking menopause seriously as a workplace issue.

How can leaders support gender equity in AI adoption?

Leaders can take three practical steps. First, scrutinise any AI tools used in hiring or performance management for evidence of bias testing – “the algorithm decided” is not a defence under the Equality Act 2010. Second, ensure women – particularly women from minoritised backgrounds – are represented in the teams designing and deploying AI systems. Third, audit who in your organisation is receiving AI literacy training and address gaps proactively. AI adoption that does not consider equity risks encoding existing disadvantage into future systems.

What is the difference between equality and equity in the workplace?

Equality means giving everyone the same thing. Equity means giving people what they need to achieve equal outcomes – which requires understanding the systems and barriers that disadvantage some groups and actively working to overcome them. In practice, equity means taking an individual approach, sharing power, and measuring outcomes rather than inputs. For a deeper exploration, see Jenny Garrett OBE’s book Equality vs Equity.

What is the most impactful thing an individual can do for gender equity right now?

Become a sponsor, not just a mentor. Mentoring gives women advice. Sponsoring means advocating for women in the rooms and meetings they are not in – where decisions about promotions, projects, and pay are made. Research shows that Black women in particular are significantly less likely to have a sponsor, making this one of the highest-leverage actions any senior leader can take.

Why does intersectionality matter in workplace gender equity?

Not all women experience the workplace the same way. The intersection of gender with race, disability, age, sexual orientation, and class shapes very different realities. For example, ONS data shows disabled women earn over 10% less than non-disabled women. The Runnymede Trust’s Broken Ladders report found 75% of women of colour have experienced racism at work. Effective equity strategies must consider these layers – addressing gender alone is not enough.