This year’s theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) is #GiveToGain, calling on everyone to give their support to gain gender equality.

First observed in 1911, International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrates women’s achievements around the world and raises awareness of the challenges women continue to face on a day-to-day basis. Always held on 8 March, IWD falls on a Sunday this year.

Gender equality applies in all parts of life, from access to health and education to professional opportunities. Looking at pay in particular, on a national level, a recent report from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) identified a trend among younger workers that seems to suggest something different is happening in the UK.

The CSJ analysis showed that young women are now earning £2,200 more than men on average. Just two years earlier, this was reversed with young men earning £1,000 more per year than women.

This is an apparent reversal of the gender pay gap which has fallen by more than a quarter over the last decade but still stood at 6.9% in April 2025, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, the gender pay gap is larger for employees aged 40 and over, than for those under 40. At least that is a sign of some progress in recent decades with younger employees seeing some improvements in the gender pay gap.

But figures from the World Economic Forum, flagged by International Women’s Day, show full gender parity will not be reached for more than a century, specifically not until 2158 based on the current level of progress.

Gender bias at work

To achieve gender equality, it is necessary to address gender bias in the workplace. There are many reasons for doing this from the moral to the legal. From a business perspective, it can positively impact profitability and the organisation’s ability to attract and retain talented people.

One study by consulting firm McKinsey on workplace diversity in 2020 found that businesses with gender diverse executive teams were 25% more likely to achieve above-average profitability compared to those that did not.

Gender diversity in senior leadership in the UK seems to be improving. The FTSE Women Leaders Review 2025, sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group and KPMG, shows that British businesses are leading the way for gender equality in boardrooms, with women occupying 1,275 (43%) of roles on company boards and 6,743 (35%) of leadership roles at FTSE 350 companies. These findings show a year-on-year increase in gender diversity at the top of British business, indicating that progress is being made to break down barriers to opportunity at the highest levels.

Despite these promising signs of increased gender equality in the UK, we must remember that this only represents a small number of the women working in this country. There is still a considerable amount to be done to ensure widespread equality and businesses that fail to act on this risk being left behind.

Taking steps toward gender equality in the workplace

There are many measures employers can use to increase gender equality in their organisation. We cover some of these here:

Implement bias training across the organisation

Whether conscious or not, bias held by individuals can lead to decision-making and actions that can go against gender equality, as it can influence how we see individuals and their personal attributes.

Training all staff, therefore, to recognise their own biases and encourage the use of objective decision-making based on facts, is an important step towards achieving equality goals.

Bias training should be focused on those in management and leadership roles, especially where budgets are stretched and action needs to be targeted where it will be most effective.

These are the employees who are responsible for shaping the overall culture of the organisation and, if steps are not taken to reduce the impact their biases have on how they act at work and the decisions they make, the culture cannot move towards being gender equal.

Ensure organisational policies and practices are gender-neutral

Reviewing and amending internal policies is an important step in tackling gender inequality in the workplace, to ensure they do not perpetuate gender inequality.

For example, when recruiting, make sure that interview questions are standardised to help ensure all individuals are measured in the same way. Making the process name-blind can also prevent gender bias from impacting decision making.

The words used in organisational policies and procedures can also be powerful. While many businesses are currently moving towards entirely gender-neutral terminology, it’s important that all organisational documentation is reviewed to ensure this is a thorough process.

Gendered examples in policies and procedures should be reviewed and neutralised so that no-one reading them is left with the impression that one gender is viewed differently to the other.

Check the gender pay gap

Globally, men are paid more than women. The global pay gap is estimated to be 20% and according to February 2026 analysis by the TUC, women in the UK are paid £2,548 a year less than men on average.

Central to achieving gender equality in pay is ensuring there are processes in place to regularly review gender parity throughout the organisation. Without this, disparity in pay can continue unchecked and unresolved.

Under the current law, only businesses with over 250 employees on a certain date each year (the ‘snapshot date’) are required to publish their gender pay gap. However, there is nothing to stop smaller ones doing their own gender pay calculations and designing their own action plan on what to do to reduce, and eventually remove, their gender pay gap.

Transparency is also important. Using salary banding to establish ranges for pay within the business limits the opportunity for gender bias to influence decisions by shifting the focus from an individual’s skills in negotiating and their previous salary to their experience in the job.

Research has shown that women are less likely to negotiate their salary if they are not specifically told it is negotiable; being clear about when this is the case plays a part therefore in pay transparency.

Get employees involved

Changing internal policies, procedures and policies, and providing training are good places to start, but the effect is going to be limited if steps are not taken to bring employees on board with what the organisation is trying to do.

Establishing employee networks to discuss changes and provide ideas for further equality measures can be a great way to understand what employees want and how the organisation can identify measures that fit its unique situation.

Key takeaway

Full gender equality is still a long way off, and there is still plenty of work to be done to achieve it, but putting in place measures to do so is beneficial to the business for a huge range of reasons and therefore well worth the investment.

Anyone wishing to support IWD #GiveToGain 2026 go to the IWD website for planning toolkits, event packs and social media cards.

By Stacie Cheadle, technical writer at Croner-i

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This article was first published on Croner-i CIPD HR-inform Pro > International Women’s Day 2026

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