What does Women's Day mean in 2026?
International Women's Day is celebrated in cities around the world on 8 March, with people taking to the streets to demonstrate for greater equality. Commentators reflect on the state of gender equality today.
AI exacerbating gender stereotypes
Artificial intelligence has a gender problem, communication expert Luisa García explains in El País:
“AI not only reacts, it also shapes perceptions. It offers gender-specific messages influencing the way young people construct their identity. With girls, it adopts an intimate and emotional tone that, under the guise of empathy, ends up reinforcing a narrative of vulnerability. ... Boys, on the other hand, are expected to be independent and in control, as if showing emotions were incompatible with masculinity. ... To stop reinforcing prejudices, AI must be accompanied by sound critical thinking. ... If we want to ensure that code stops perpetuating prejudices, we need to intervene in the design process right now.”
It's about saving the world
Feminism has to be about more than just gender equality, the Frankfurter Rundschau urges:
“Its aim must be much simpler and all the more radical for it: a life of freedom for all. Freedom from oppression, exploitation and violence - whether that be from states, corporation or fellow humans. After all, the fact that the current wave of authoritarianism is causing anti-feminism to flare up once more in so many places shows us yet again that authoritarian rulers regard feminism as a threat to their claims to power. And this is precisely what it is. Because at its core, feminism is nothing less that an attempt to save the world.”
Power to the women!
Casting an eye back to Russia's February Revolution of 1917 in a Telegram post published in Echo, author Boris Akunin reminds us why International Women's Day is celebrated on 8 March:
“The Revolution began on 8 March (23 February according to the old calendar) in Petrograd with a demonstration of female workers. ... Men only joined their ranks later. ... For the few months that followed, Russia was the freest country in the world. It seems strange from today's perspective that the revolution was started by women and yet that only men were put in government. And they have certainly failed to govern the country. Let's do things the other way round next time. Let the men kick things off and then women take power. Perhaps they will make a better job of it.”