I did not know there were two International Women's Days until I started asking questions.

When I came across the 2026 IWD theme, Give to Gain, I felt exhausted. Not inspired. Exhausted. And I needed to understand why.

So I pulled on the loose thread of my curiosity. What I found sitting underneath that theme, behind the purple banners and the cupped hands and the hashtag, is what this episode is about.

Who created Give to Gain? Who benefits from it? What does it mean that the organisation running the most visible International Women's Day platform is a private consultancy, not the United Nations? And why are some of the companies most visibly promoting this theme the same ones filing unexplained gender pay gaps?

This is not an anti-IWD episode. It is an invitation to think. To ask. To know the difference between a campaign that demands justice and one that asks women to give more.

I may be totally wrong. And I am okay with that. But what if I'm not wrong?

THEMES EXPLORED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The true origins of International Women's Day — 1908, 1909, and why March 8th was fixed in 1921 to honour the women of Petrograd

• The two IWD organisations happening on the same day, and why most people only know about one

• Who created the Give to Gain theme and who runs internationalwomensday.com

• The gender pay gap data behind the organisations publicly promoting the theme

• What the images on the Give to Gain campaign page communicate

• Purple washing, gaslighting, and performative allyship — the language for what you might already be feeling

• What it means to be a critical thinker in your own story

LISTENING CONTEXT:

This episode contains references to historical labour exploitation, gender-based violence statistics, and systemic inequality. There are no graphic descriptions. If something lands differently than expected, that is worth paying attention to.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• UN Women — official IWD 2026 theme: Rights. Justice. Action. For All Women and Girls — unwomen.org

• UK Gender Pay Gap Service — gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk

• Angela Priestley, Women's Agenda (Australia) — 'Don't Give to Gain and get duped again this International Women's Day'

• Novara Media — 'internationalwomensday.com Is a Corporate Hijack'

• internationalwomensday.com — IWD 2026 Give to Gain Theme Page

• Aurora Ventures — aurora-ventures.com

This episode is for anyone who has ever followed a campaign without questioning it. For anyone who has felt something was off but could not name it. For anyone ready to think critically, in their own story, about what they consume and why.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jkfrederick.substack.com