International Women's Day 2026: Who Deserves the Helm?

Why on earth is that still the case?

One hundred and fifteen years ago, women fought to establish International Women’s Day. 
A remarkable anniversary — and one that wasn’t easily won. In the United States, a socialist women’s labour movement was gaining ground. The Socialist Party of America introduced a national Women’s Day on February 28, 1909. 
Women rose up and flooded the streets to protest the miserable working conditions of textile workers. 
A year later, German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed the creation of an International Women’s Day at the Second International Socialist Women’s Conference. Her male comrades were decidedly unenthused. 

The very first International Women’s Day was finally celebrated on March 19, 1911. 
The date was later moved to March 8. 
It took men a full sixty-four years to digest that decision. Oh men!

In 1975, the United Nations officially declared March 8 International Women’s Day.
Sorry, that took so long, ladies.

I’d like to take a moment — as I always do — to mention a few women who have done extraordinary things for the world. Extraordinary, that is, from the male perspective. Or so I’d imagine.

The Woman Who Led Hundreds Out of Slavery
Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and then guided hundreds of others to freedom — and during the Civil War, she also served as a spy and nurse.

The Prime Minister With Heart and Conviction
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, was known for her compassionate yet decisive leadership — particularly in the aftermath of the Christchurch attack and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. She became a mother while running the country.

The Girl Who Refused to Be Silenced
Malala Yousafzai survived a Taliban assassination attempt and became the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history — a tireless activist for girls’ education around the world.

These women are just a handful of examples. 
My collection of remarkable women from around the world grows every single day.

Today, on March 8, 2026, the world feels a little more feminine than usual. Because today, International Women’s Day is being celebrated for the 115th time. 
And it’s perfectly fine if some men — myself included — choose to celebrate women on all the other days too.

After ten thousand years of male-dominated politics, the world looks rather worse for wear. Not technically — but in terms of humanity, of care for the world and its inhabitants, we are clearly coming up short. And once again, the question hangs in the air: What if women took over the lead?

Before anyone starts hyperventilating, let me throw a few facts and thoughts into the room.
So why should women take the helm of the world?

These are neither feminist polemics nor an attempt to curry favour with the female half of the population. 
This is simply sober observation:

Consensus over confrontation. Research consistently shows that female leadership styles tend toward collaboration, diplomacy, and long-term thinking — qualities urgently needed in a world rife with nationalism and knee-jerk decision-making.

Wars are started by men. That’s not an exaggeration — that’s statistics. Not a single armed conflict in modern history was initiated by a woman. And frankly, women would hardly have invented things like cannons, revolvers, rockets, and rifles — weapons that appear to have used the male anatomy as a design reference.

Empathy as political intelligence. Countries with female leadership — New Zealand, Iceland, Denmark, Finland — have demonstrably performed better during crises. Not because women are “nicer,” but because empathy is smart.

Nature shows the way. In the animal kingdom, females lead in many species — elephants, bees, orcas. The females organize, remember, and decide. The males protect or compete.

And perhaps the strongest argument of all: women have kept the world running for millennia under the most difficult conditions — often without recognition, without pay, without power.
If you can do that, you’re probably overqualified for governing.

Should women take the helm? 

Perhaps the better question is: the helm should finally go where it has long belonged — into the hands of the most competent. 
And when it comes to that, it’s about ability, not gender.

Personal conclusion: In my seventy years, it has been women above all who have shaped me. 
Their way of thinking — to the extent that I managed to understand it — has taught me more than I ever could have learned on my own. 

And today, on the 115th International Women’s Day, I declare with great joy: I am a feminist.