International Women’s Day – More Than Just Flowers

The recently celebrated International Women’s Day is often marked with flowers. Yet the numbers related to the situation of girls and women around the world tell a much deeper story.

Today, women globally still earn about 61 cents for every dollar earned by men, and when unpaid work is included, this gap becomes even larger. On average, women spend 2.4 more hours each day performing unpaid care and household work, and in the labour market they still have only about two-thirds of the legal rights that men enjoy. Some global studies suggest that, at the current pace, achieving gender equality could take more than a century. To be precise – 123 years. 123! These are numbers that make us pause and reflect – and remind us why this conversation is so important.

At the same time, ensuring more equal access for women to healthcare and opportunities could increase the global economy by more than 1 trillion US dollars every year by 2040. And if women were able to start and grow businesses at the same rate as men, the global economy could expand by an additional 5–6 trillion dollars. Equality, as you can see, is one of the most powerful yet still underutilized drivers of human and economic growth.

And this is precisely where – in my deep conviction – education becomes especially important. Schools shape how young people understand fairness and opportunity, and how they see their own potential. When girls are encouraged to pursue mathematics, science, leadership or entrepreneurship, and when boys learn respect, partnership and shared responsibility, we begin to change the very story of the future.

Every classroom and every day therefore carries potential. The questions teachers ask, the examples they give, the confidence they nurture – all of this creates change. If we want a world where opportunities do not depend on gender, then the work must begin where it has always begun: in schools, in families, and – most importantly – in the belief that every child deserves equal opportunities.