International Women’s Day 2026

“Men and women aren’t equal. We never have been.” This IWD, Algar Air’s Simone Algar gets real about equality.

As this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) once again celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, Algar Air MD Simone Algar wants the world to take a reality check.

Men and women aren’t equal. We never have been. We still aren’t. And for all the good done by initiatives like IWD – and for all that I’m the first to celebrate the progress that’s been made – we’re still stubbornly stuck in the same rut we’ve been in forever.

Women don’t have equality with men because the starting point for changing things isn’t pay, as important as that is. It’s literally everything else.

A woman’s work

If you want a perfect example of just how unequal things are, can I point you in the direction of Deloitte’s Women at Work 2025 report. This was a report built on data from 7,500 women in 15 countries. It touches on a range of issues, from mental and physical health to work, wellbeing and household responsibilities. There’s barely a single metric that’s positive news for women.

• 1 in 3 women say their stress levels are higher than a year ago
• 1 in 5 say menopause or perimenopause is undermining their confidence to do their job
• 30% of women say they want to leave their job because they can’t find work-life balance
• More than half of women now work fully on site as hybrid working opportunities shrink

Perhaps the starkest set of stats are about women’s responsibilities at home.

As you can see from this chart, women are by far the more likely to be doing the caring, cleaning, shopping and managing.

This isn’t equal. And when the conversation turns to what men do, we treat men who share the load as though they’re superheroes, when in reality what they’re doing is bringing the position to exactly where it should be: 50:50.

Redistributing the load

This really isn’t about digging out men. But it is about challenging the narrative. We use IWD as a chance to pat ourselves on the back about the extent to which women have shattered glass ceilings. You’re more likely to see women in boardrooms, in parliament, in positions of power and authority today than at any point in our history.

But what the Deloitte report shows is that when those women head home, they’re the ones who are still largely responsible for looking after the household finances. They’re the ones attending parent teacher nights or taking the kids to medical appointments. They’re the ones looking after mum or dad. They’re the ones cooking tea.

We need to get beneath the surface. Women won’t be equal until society changes its expectations and treats women as equal. When you do that, equal pay becomes an inevitable and natural next step.

Let’s talk about this

So this IWD, can I encourage you to have a conversation? With the women in your life. With the men. Perhaps especially with the teenagers and young adults who are the ones who’ll need to break this cycle. Let’s not make it about finger pointing. Instead, let’s talk about the Deloitte report. Let’s talk about what’s really going on in women’s lives. And let’s talk about what we really want equality to look and feel like.