‘Give to Gain’ is the ultimate IWD gaslighting

The unofficial IWD 2026 mantra feels less like progress and more like ‘cheer up, love,’ writes Nicola Kemp.

Corporate whiplash is top of the unofficial menu for International Women’s Day 2026. When the industry is flush with headlines on return to office mandates, is it any wonder that the backlash against empty corporate feminism is in full swing?

The uncomfortable truth is that when it comes to driving equality, we simply aren’t paying enough attention. Which is why so many companies in the media industry will be content to spend March cosplaying feminism, while rolling out policies and pay structures which crush women’s career trajectories.

All too many companies are happy to skim the surface of International Women’s Day. Perhaps this is why we are happy to accept ‘Give to Gain’ as the theme of a random corporate website.

Spoiler alert: the actual theme, from the consistently impactful UN Women, is ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls’. A focus which does not put the onus on women to keep on leaning into structures built to suffocate their ambition.

The cost of a lack of lived experience in leadership

The inescapable truth is that leaders appear increasingly disconnected from the economic and emotional reality of their employees’ lives. These leaders are quite literally putting their employees on mute while they make the choice to ignore the cost of the inequality they face.

Yet, while agencies can turn off the comments sections in their Town Halls, they cannot do so in real life. While you’re rolling out your ‘Give to Gain’ cupcakes, the glaring lack of diversity in senior leadership teams remains.

For an industry that loves nothing better than extolling the virtues of curiosity, there is a catastrophic lack of curiosity about the lack of affordable childcare or the cost of commuting.

Even a cursory glance at anonymous industry creator Media Lad’s Instagram Stories provides the oxygen of honesty that seems increasingly missing from the mainstream industry debate.

In response to Publicis announcement that it was mandating four days a week in the office, one anonymous employee wrote: “This decision alienates so many minorities in the market, working mothers, women in the workplace, lower economic backgrounds and for what?”

They continued: “They’re fixing something that isn’t broken, and in doing so, they’re messing with the employees’ lives and incomes.”

Fixing a system that isn’t broken

So let’s ask the question that may well be absent from the industry-wide IWD talking points: why are so many leaders intent on fixing a system that isn’t broken?

The answers vary. At a time when many leaders remain ambiguous about the impact of AI on their businesses, taking a “strong stance” on office attendance can feel like a reassuring display of control. A  comfort blanket in an uncertain future.

But the headlines don’t tell the whole story. Across the industry, there are exceptional leaders committed to advancing equality. Many independent agencies see command-and-control leadership as an opportunity: a chance to attract and crucially retain top talent by doing the opposite.

Others highlight the disconnect between policy and practice. How agencies implement mandates, particularly across global teams and time zones, varies enormously.

While within the holding companies behind the headlines, progressive leaders continue to fight quietly for flexible working. Their work may not win awards, but it demonstrates what real leadership looks like: doing the right thing when no one is watching.

We have a choice

In a world of ‘Give to Gain’ inclusion washing, it is all too easy to be cynical about the need to mark International Women’s Day. So let’s not forget that it was originally created to fight for women’s rights; the right to vote, for fair pay and safe working conditions.

We have to continue to fight for those rights today.

To work towards creating an industry where women don’t face a 19.5% pay gap in favour of men. To challenge maternity discrimination and use our voices to highlight the lived experience of women being squeezed out of jobs they love by leaders who don’t seem to be able to comprehend the logistical and economic tightrope that comes hand in hand with the UK’s broken childcare system.

Yet women cannot win this fight alone. All too many women in leadership are scared to use their voices to challenge an increasingly backward status quo.

To question structures which continue to crush women’s careers increasingly comes hand in hand with being labelled ‘difficult’. So ingrained is this judgment that women endlessly judge each other, recycling tired stereotypes forward.

Yet to play it safe, to say nothing when you see a woman talked over, a policy rolled back, or a female leader criticised, is a choice rooted in privilege.

Our collective silence is anything but inevitable. We have a choice. Let’s choose to do better. Let’s recognise that many women in the media industry have nothing left to give.

Nicola Kemp has spent over two decades writing about diversity, equality and inclusion in media. She is now editorial director at Creativebrief and writes for The Media Leader each month.