Give to Gain: Stop Shrinking and Start Multiplying

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2026, the global landscape for women feels more like the ‘Wild West’ than ever before. We are navigating an era where AI can clone our voices, social media feeds are flooded with a resurgence of ‘traditional’ machismo, and the progress we thought was set in stone feels, in many places, to be on wafer-thin ice.

At Funny Women, we have spent 24 years using humour as a superpower to grab attention and shift perspectives. But as I look at the IWD theme for this year: Give to Gain, I realize that my original mission has evolved from discovering and showcasing ‘funny women’ to providing a much-needed platform where those who identify as female can collectively find their voice. Giving your time, expertise, or platform to another woman does not decrease your own value; it multiplies the total influence of the community.

The Conversation We’ve Been Avoiding: The Dreaded Shrinks

In our recent Stand Up to Stand Out workshops and our How to Have Fun at Work events, a recurring, uncomfortable truth has emerged. I call it The Dreaded Shrinks. It is the phenomenon where, as women age, we are edited out of the narrative. And it’s a conversation that I don’t want to avoid any more.

We see it in the workplace, where women over 50 are often treated as if they have already ‘retired’ their ambitions. We see it in the ‘comparison culture’ of the digital world, where the pressure to be beautiful, attractive, and clever 24/7 leads to burnout and a loss of authentic voice.

The most dangerous part of this ‘shrinking’ is that it happens just when we have the most to offer. We have the ‘witchy’ sixth sense, the strategic wisdom, and the technical expertise of decades. Yet, we often find ourselves playing daft or dippy just to get through the door, fearing that being assertive will get us labelled as an ‘old bag.’

The Resurgence of the Gatekeepers

We are also facing a geopolitical resurgence of misogyny. From the rollback of rights globally to the rise of the ‘manosphere’ online, there is a concerted effort to push women back into smaller boxes. These gatekeepers rely on us staying isolated.

This is why I often speak about why we shouldn’t keep ‘reinventing the wheel’. Too often, women feel they must start small, separate entities they can control because they are fearful of being a smaller part of a bigger thing. But in 2026, staying small is a risk we can no longer afford. Together we are stronger and have a much louder collective voice.

Give to Gain: The Power of Intentional Multiplication

The Give to Gain campaign is the direct antidote to this isolation. It is the realisation that giving is not a subtraction; it is a multiplication of our collective power.

When we give our time, our digital agility, or our ‘unseen success’ to another woman, we aren’t losing our slice of the pie, we are building a bigger kitchen.

My personal policy has always been to create a circular community with Funny Women by supporting anyone in the female comedy space running gigs, creating platforms, or producing content. We have evolved so much in the last 24 years and already proved that together we are stronger.

To fight the Dreaded Shrinks and the rising tide of misogyny, we need an intergenerational pact:

• The Legacy Givers: Those of us who are the early adopters must share our wisdom and experience. We must mentor the next generation, so they don’t have to waste time reinventing the wheel.
• The Agility Givers: The younger generation must bring their digital fluency to help ensure our elders aren’t left behind in the AI revolution.

Standing Up to Stand Out

Gender equality isn’t just about a seat at the table; it’s about the right to speak sense without a filter or worrying about how old we are. It’s about ensuring that when one woman thrives, we all rise.

This IWD, I challenge you to perform an act of Abundant Giving. Mentor someone who doesn’t look like you or share your birth decade. Amplify a voice that society is trying to shrink. Because in this Wild West of 2026, our greatest weapon isn’t just a punchline it’s each other.

Let’s stop shrinking and start multiplying.