There is a distinct urgency to this year’s International Women’s Day theme, “Accelerating Action”. Women’s equality, already progressing at a concerningly slow pace, has been dealt a devastating blow by the blind-siding cuts in United States foreign aid.

In 2024, the World Economic Forum stated: “at the current rate of progress, it will take until the year 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity.”
Women have toiled endlessly towards attaining equality since the 19th century, with enormous strides and tremendous change achieved since then, and the possibilities that exist for women today would have been unimaginable a few generations ago. So, the realization of still being five generations away from full equality gives rise to some frustration and a great deal of impatience, making it self-evident that accelerated action is needed.

Fast forward from 2024 to February 2025 and the situation is even more dire because recent cuts in foreign aid by the United States Government, cut to the heart of gender equality. Many organizations with gender equality initiatives such as girls’ education, maternal health, and women’s economic empowerment have been funded by the United States and the cuts will cause these essential programmes to be scaled down or ended completely. This will be particularly felt in communities where gender inequality is entrenched and normalized through tradition and culture. Crucial programmes that could collapse include vocational training and initiatives to combat gender-based violence . Clinics offering free maternal healthcare and climate resilience programmes are also in the firing line and their closure will disproportionately affect women in rural areas and agriculture .

Accelerated action becomes even more critical as these new developments threaten to erase years of work and progress among some of the most vulnerable communities. Possible solutions that have been put forward include “diversifying funding sources, strengthening local partnerships, leveraging technology, and advocacy . The imperative of women’s equality needs to be kept alive through conversations and action at an international level with global think-tanks, multilateral finance institutions, and big business everywhere.

Closer to the ground and at a practical level, solutions should include doing more of what has already worked in empowering women – education, skills training, adopting the use of technology, providing opportunities for growth, mentorship, and teaching women to be kinder to themselves. Although it may seem trivial, the last point could be the most important because self-sabotaging and lack of self-belief cancel any progress that is made on other fronts. Women need to realise that they have the most to lose in the current climate and cannot afford to hang back. Ghanaian women need to become agents for their own advancement by stepping out of comfort zones and culturally imposed straight jackets. The country and the world need them now more than ever and continued self-minimisation is self-defeatist.

It now becomes vital to put into practice everything that we have learnt on our journeys to becoming more empowered as women in all fields of endeavour from entrepreneurship through neurosurgery to farming or academia. The lessons have included not just how to excel in our fields but also how to build perseverance, self-acceptance, pay attention to our physical, mental, and spiritual health, and grow as individuals and leaders. They have taught us how to be more compassionate, effective, and empathetic not just at work, but also at home and in our communities.

This International Women’s Day, women must understand that they have earned a place at the table and are holding things up by their continued absence. Several well-known phrases come to mind including the quote attributed to Glennon Doyle, “If you can’t beat fear, just do it scared”.

We need to overcome the instinct of always putting ourselves last, feeling inadequate and undeserving, and acting invisible. We must polish ourselves off, push our fears away, reach out for all that is available to us and, using what we already have, push boundaries to create new opportunities when none are offered. As we do this, we follow the steps of trailblazers who made a way for us, and create our own imprints to show others the way. This is accelerated action – a chain reaction set in motion by women unashamedly reaching for more.