International Women's Day
Natalie Nixon, Proud Women's Representative
On 8th March 2026, International Women’s Day (here-forth IWD) will mark its 115th anniversary. IWD is a day to mark and celebrate advancements in women’s rights as well as serving as a call to action for the continued advancement of women’s rights globally.
IWD was first proposed by Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany in 1910. The first IWD was marked in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland and in 1975 the UN first marked the day, which led to 1975 being declared International Women’s Year.
The theme of this year’s IWD is ‘Give to Gain’, which emphasises the ‘power of reciprocity and support’ in the advancement of women’s rights. The IWD global community presents an extensive (but not exhaustive) list of examples of giving, including: visibility, voice, justice, opportunities, safety and access.
This year’s theme highlights the importance of solidarity and unity and the importance of challenging and opposing all attempts to divide us. Within the UK this is an especially pertinent theme in the wake of the Supreme Court restricting its definition of “woman” to biologically essentialist principles. It is increasingly important that we continue to challenge any attempts to restrict womanhood to narrow definitions, amid growing transphobic rhetoric. As Jemma Garvey pointed out in their blog post for International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 2025, these narrow definitions hurt us all. These definitions lead to condoning the rescinding of rights and safety of trans women and men, non-binary and gender non-conforming folk and anyone who doesn’t neatly conform to traditional western conceptions of femininity or masculinity.
Zetkin understood that women’s liberation could not be won in a vacuum and emphasised the importance of trade unions in this fight. She rejected attempts to narrow definitions of womanhood, arguing that contemporaneous feminist movements only represented the perspective of bourgeois women. IWD since its conception has taken an expansive and inclusive approach to the advancement of the rights of all women. The global community’s website states: “IWD is truly inclusive, never exclusive” and that “giving is not a subtraction, it's intentional multiplication.”.
Trans+ inclusive feminism does not take anything away from the rights of ciswomen. Over the past 100 years, many marginalised women have had to advocate for their place in women’s rights movements which previously excluded them across class, racialised, global majority and heteronormative lines. Feminism and women's rights are stronger and richer as a result of this inclusion. Excluding women along biologically essentialist lines is yet another attempt to divide and restrict us. Trans+ inclusive feminism is not a subtraction, it is a multiplication.
This year’s theme is a powerful reminder that ‘united we gain, divided we fall’. We must challenge any attempts to divide us in the fight for women’s rights, justice and liberation. PCS Proud have a strong record of working to defend and advance the rights of all women within the union and vociferously challenge attempts to divide us and row back on our rights. This can be demonstrated through Proud motions submitted to PCS Annual Delegates Conference (ADC).
PCS Proud holds a members’ meeting on every last Tuesday of the month. Sign up here to take part!
